Tales of Symphonia: Dark Destiny
by Wavemasterkaz
Summary: It's too bad you killed them..." Beings of twilight that talk to him from the shadows, newfound fatherhood and a boy whose sanity is continuously questioned. This journey is becoming more than Kratos bargained for. CONTAINS SPOILERS! Read and review?
1. Prologue Wake Up

**Disclaimer**: Well my friends, here it is, my new Tales of Symphonia fic, I hope you've been looking forward to it, I know I have haha :] This is a completely new story, and has nothing to do with my previous non-one-shot story _Anna Aurion Key of the Twilight_. I think I'm going to like working on this one a lot more especially now that my writing has improved. Thank you Writer's Craft! I love that class. But anyway, I'm just going to continue right into the story. I do not own Tales of Symphonia or The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Tales of Symphonia is property of Namco and TLOZ: Twilight Princess is property of Nintendo. Enjoy.

A/N: Just so you know, I'm not incorporating too much of Twilight Princess in here, just a character. Any other parts that sound a lot like the game are not meant to they're supposed to be my creation.

**Prologue**

_Wake Up_

_Wake up..._

A voice. What was it saying? Who was it talking to?

_Wake up..._

Wake up...how?

_You need to wake up..._

What was waking up? This was a voice, if he was right. But how could he know? He was so small.. He was experiencing something unpleasant. Was this pain? His arm hurt. Or was it his leg? What hurt? What was hurt? He didn't know. He was only supposed to know what she did...wasn't he? Wait. It was his side that hurt, wasn't it? So close to his heart. Why did he know that that was? How could he know? He was still so small..

_Please...please just wake up..._

Why did this voice sound so familiar to him? He liked it. But what did it mean? How did he understand?

_I'm so sorry..._

What was sorry?

_I love you..._

A different voice now. It sounded so much louder to him. The other voice had been so far away.. This voice seemed to come from around him...from him?

_I have to...go..._

Go?

_No! Don't leave me! I'm sorry! Don't go!_

The far away voice sounded so sad, but...what was sad? And where was he going? He wasn't going anywhere...was he?

_I love you..._

And the close voice was gone. But no...wait! This was wrong! He needed it! He felt it begin to hurt him. His chest hurt. Was it his chest? He couldn't breathe, his head was hurting too. Frightened, he struggled and felt his foot connect with something. And then...the pain was gone.

_No...you can't leave me.._

But he wasn't going anywhere. Was he? He didn't want his far voice to sound so sad. But what now? He was suddenly hurting again, all over as he felt his world shaking, felt himself thrown about, bumped around with things pressing in on him. Then, as suddenly as it started, it stopped. His far voice was right. He'd gone somewhere, somewhere far away from that far voice. But...where had he gone?

All he could hear was the heartbeat.

End Prologue

Wake Up


	2. Chapter I Eyes and Voices

**Disclaimer: **Weellllll, I didn't feel like waiting so here's the next installment, oh so soon haha. Hope you like

I do not own Tales of Symphonia, or Midna. Tales of Symphonia is property of Namco and Midna is from Twilight Princess which is property of Nintendo.

Enjoy.

**Chapter I**

_Eyes and Voices_

Kratos Aurion stood awake in the room he was sharing with Lloyd Irving at the inn in Palmacosta. He could hear the boy's steady breathing and occasional snoring in the background of his thoughts, and they were doing nothing to distract him from his current train of thought. Lloyd couldn't really be...could he? There was no way he could still be alive, but...Lloyd's story fit perfectly. Kratos was unprepared for this. He was unprepared and completely unready for the fact that he may still be a father. If Lloyd really was his son...he owed him years of fatherhood. Something...he couldn't give.

Feeling almost afraid, he turned to look at the sleeping boy. With his body sprawled across the bed, arms and legs dangling over the edge, mouth hanging open, he looked somewhat comical and Kratos couldn't help but chuckle.

As he sat down on the edge of his own bed, he shook his head as he realized that he'd been searching Lloyd's face for resemblences to his own. He also shook his head when he realized that those resemblences were there.

No. This Lloyd couldn't be his son. If he was alive, then Anna...why hadn't his Anna lived on as well?

"Because you killed her. It's really that simple." a soft voice behind him said. Kratos jumped and turned to see a pair of enormous orange eyes staring at him, with a gleaming white smile underneath.

"How did you-?"

"You were thinking out loud, silly." the eyes bobbed up and down, as if their owner's head was being nodded. Then suddenly, they disappeared and reappeared in a shadow above Lloyd's bed.

"Really looks like you, doesn't he?" the voice said, the words followed by a giggle. "Got your eyes too!" A shadow of a tiny hand reached out and lifted one of Lloyd's eyelids. Kratos felt his body involuntarily move forward defensively.

"Heehee!" the shadowy hand withdrew itself and the orange eyes narrowed. "You're definitely his father! If you weren't, you wouldn't have been in such a hurry to protect him from little old me. Heeheehee!"

"Why are you here?" Kratos said wearily. "Want do you want from me?" The eyes opened fully again.

"Do I need a reason to visit?" the voice said, feigning insult. "I can't come see my old friend?"

"We're not friends." Kratos said bluntly. "You helped me once and I was grateful, but that doesn't make us friends."

"Whatever you say, Mr. Big Scary Angel, heheheh..." the voice replied, the eyes narrowing again. "So...what are you going to do with your newfound fatherhood?" Kratos sighed.

"Did you come here just to make me relive painful experiences of the past? How foolish." The orange eyes narrowed further.

"You're the one who's foolish, Kratos." the voice said, sounding a little irked. "There's something right under your nose that you can't even see..." Kratos raised one eyebrow.

"You're not going to tell me anything useful, so why are you really here?" he said quietly. Lloyd rolled over and mumbled something unintelligible in his sleep.

"You'll see for yourself soon enough," the voice said mysteriously. "See you again at Kvar's ranch, heehee." Kratos' head snapped up, his eyes full of fury.

"What did you say?" he said in a dangerously quiet voice. "Why would I ever go back there? Why would you even think that I would...I will never return to that place..."

"Lloyd is going to find out eventually which ranch his mother was held at, and you _know_ he's going to go out for revenge." the voice said. "And you know the others will follow him. We've seen it happen. It's going to be soon."

"Why will you be there?" Kratos demanded. "And what do you mean, 'we've seen it happen'?" The voice giggled again.

"You'll see," it said. "But...it's really a shame that you killed them, isn't it? They would've loved to see your little father-son reunion, right? Heehee!" Kratos' hands clenched into fists, his one hand moving slowly toward his sword.

"Get out." he whispered, his voice full of hate.

"Hm?" the voice replied, the eyes still narrowed.

"Get...out." he repeated.

"Now now, don't be like that, Kratie.."

"Get out!" His sword was drawn now. Lloyd mumbled something and rolled over again before opening his eyes drowsily.

"Hey...Kratos.." he mumbled. "What's going on?"

"Nothing." Kratos replied shortly. "Some pest just found its way in here." Lloyd looked at him for a moment.

"Oh." he said, before falling back to sleep. Kratos sighed. There was no sign of the eyes anymore.

"I can't wait to hear him call you 'Daddy'!" the voice said in his ear.

End Chapter I

Eyes and Voices


	3. Chapter II Soon

**Disclaimer**: Wow...I'm updating this pretty quickly. Maybe it's cause I'm just posting chapters as I finish them, and I have a lot of time to write in writer's craft, haha. So yeah, I do not own Tales of Symphonia. It's property of Namco. I do own the original characters in here, except for a certain shadowy being. She's copyright of Nintendo. Yes. Enjoy :)

**Chapter II**

_Soon_

It had been several weeks since the eyes had appeared in the shadows, but Kratos couldn't get the creature's words out of his mind.

_"Lloyd is going to find out eventually which ranch his mother was held at and you _know_ he's going to go out for revenge. You know that the others will follow him. We've seen it happen...soon..."_ These words continued through his mind over and over and he felt almost as if the being was following him, lurking in every shadow and whispering to him in the night.

"See you at the ranch..." he mumbled. Lloyd turned to look at him.

"You say something?" he asked. Kratos shook his head. Lloyd shrugged and went back to talking with Genis.

"Soon, Mr. Angel..." the voice came to him from what appeared to be a tree they were passing. "From Luin they'll be going to the ranch you so dread...are you ready?" The eyes appeared in the shadow of the tree. "See you there, heeheehee..." And then she was gone. Kratos shook his head and kept walking, but was unable to shake the worry that gripped him suddenly. He began to dread reaching Luin..

He remained silent while they decided to stop for the night, where Colette approached him.

"Um...Mr. Kratos?" she said a little nervously. Kratos was a bit taken aback from this. Maybe his silence and his demeanour would be rather intimidating to someone like her. He inclined his head to her.

"Yes?" Colette fidgeted with her hands.

"Are you okay?" she asked. "It's just...you really seem like you're being bothered by something, and I'd like to help, since you're helping me and all...do you...want to talk about it?" Kratos chuckled. The Chosen really was too nice for her own good. Did he want to talk about it? He did, a little, but not to her. It would be too difficult to explain, and he would be at risk of giving himself away.

"It's nothing you should concern yourself with, Chosen One," he replied. "Right now you should just concentrate on the task at hand, the world regeneration. I will be fine." Colette regarded him for a moment.

"Okay," she said, smiling at him. "I'll do that. I'm going to do my best to regenerate the world and save everyone." Kratos nodded. She was just too nice... What a pity about her fate...

In the early hours of the morning, he heard the voice again.

"I have to get back to him now, see you at the ranch today, heeheehee.." And she was gone. Kratos looked to the nearest shadow, but he knew she wasn't there. What had she meant, 'get back to him'? Was she working with Kvar now? Today...why would they go to the ranch today? He was already at risk of being found out...what if Kvar revealed him? No. He would silence him before he could speak. Lust for revenge welled up inside of him.

Today...

... ... ... ... ... ...

"I can't believe that they could even do such a thing..." Raine murmured. "How can anyone be so cruel?" Their newest companion, a girl who was formerly an assassin who tried to kill Colette, looked at her.

"They're Desians," she said sadly. "It's what they do..."

"They're going to pay for this." Lloyd said, his voice shaking with rage. "And once we get those people out, I'm going to _make_ Kvar pay. Especially for what he did to my mom..."

The group had arrived in Luin only to find it completely destroyed. Everything was in ruins and it was there that they'd found Sheena, the assassin, who had told them the fate of the townspeople.

"The people of Luin are not our concern," Kratos said, though he knew his efforts were pointless. His words earned him a glare from the others in the group, but he continued. "We must focus on the task at hand, the world regeneration." Lloyd turned and glared at him.

"How can we regenerate the world if we can't even save the people who need us here, now?" he said. Kratos sighed. He was going to fail this assignment, there was no doubt about that. They'd get to the ranch and then Kvar would give him away. Lord Yggdrasill would not be pleased.

They reached the ranch just before sundown, and as they stood outside, hidden by the surrounding trees, both Lloyd and Kratos were trembling with nerves and anger.

_They're going to pay..._ they thought simultaneously. They sat in silence, each trying to think of a way to get inside, but not sharing ideas for fear of being overheard by the guards. Lloyd quietly drew his swords and was preparing to take out a passing guard when the silence was broken by the snarl of an animal, followed by the scream of a guard. From where they stood, it sounded as though the sounds had come from the other end of the clearing... The guards nearest them grabbed their weapons and ran toward the source of the commotion.

"Now!" Lloyd hissed and they seized their chance, successfully gaining access to the inside of the ranch.

Once inside, they were nearly discovered several times, but quickly took out the guards that had seen them. But it still seemed to be taking forever to make their way further inside.

"Ugh, these damn traps!" Lloyd cursed, grinding his teeth. "These stupid contraptions and puzzles are slowing us down too much!"

"I agree." Kratos said, not quite as calm and composed as usual. Raine turned to him.

"You seem more agitated than you usually are when we're in a ranch, Kratos," she observed.

"I have some unresolved conflicts with the owner of this facility," he replied without looking at her.

"You know him?" Lloyd demanded incredulously. Kratos sighed.

"You could say that." he said darkly.

End Chapter II

Soon


	4. Chapter III Attack

**Disclaimer**: Holy flaming tampons batman, three chapters in one day! Due to popular demand from one reader and the fear of being decapitated if I don't update soon, I've been working overtime on this motherflooker. Yes. Motherflooker. So...just because I want to make my chapters look longer, I'm doing a slightly different disclaimer today. Ladies and Gentlemen, and Burgandy, please welcome Mr. Orin Stryfe!

Orin: "What the hell?"

Wavemasterkaz: "Hello Orin, you're doing my disclaimer today."

Orin: "No...I'm not." *starts to walk away*

Wavemasterkaz: "You don't want to walk away from me. You want to come do my disclaimer for me." *waves hand mysteriously*

Orin:*turns* "Stop trying to use the Force. You look like an idiot."

Wavemasterkaz: "Come back here and do my disclaimer you spiky headed son of a b-!"

Orin:*sigh* "Fine. Wavemasterkaz does not own Tales of Symphonia. It belongs to Namco, yadda yadda. Yippee, it's done, now f**k off and leave me alone." *leaves*

Wavemasterkaz: "He's such a pleasant young man, isn't he?"

**Chapter III**

_Attack_

"This is it..." Lloyd muttered. They were standing outside of a sliding metal door, the one they knew hid Kvar behind it.

"Are you sure?" Genis asked uncertainly. Lloyd nodded.

"Remember what that Desian we caught said?" he replied. "It's the door with the crest on it. I'm sure he's here. I can feel it."

"But what if it's a trap?" Sheena said, her spell cards held at the ready. Kratos turned to her.

"We will just have to be prepared." Was all he said, but he too, was unsure. Would it be this easy?

"_What are you waiting for, Kratie? Heeheehee..."_

Dammit! What was she playing at? Was that irritating creature really helping Kvar now? He shook his head in anger. Why did he care?

"Then let's go!" Lloyd said, obviously getting impatient. Kratos understood the feeling. "What are we waiting for?"

_ What are you waiting for? Heeheehee..._

"Yes," Kratos agreed. Lloyd opened the door and they stormed inside. Kvar was standing with his back to them, but as he heard them enter, he turned.

"Well, well, well..." he said, chuckling. There was an expression on his face that made Kratos feel very ill at ease as Kvar looked at him. "You've finally made it here, have you Chosen?"

"We came for the people of Luin!" Lloyd said angrily. "Let them go!"

"Hmm?" Kvar turned and looked at Lloyd. A very unsettling grin spread across his face. "Finally," he whispered. "It has finally returned to me!" Lloyd looked at him blankly, as did all of the others. All except Kratos, who knew _exactly_ what this despicable man was talking about.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Lloyd demanded. Kvar pointed to his hand.

"You! That exsphere!" he whispered. "Give it to me! It's mine!" Lloyd took a step back, a look of surprise on his face that quickly turned to rage.

"No! This is my mother's keepsake! She left it to me, after you Desians killed her!" he yelled. Kvar chuckled.

"Fool." he said. "I didn't kill your mother. Your father did."

... ... ... ... ... ...

He was running again, but what else was new? He was always running. He could hear the rapid footsteps of his pursuers, but he wasn't worried. They wouldn't be able to catch him. He could hear the wind roaring in his ears and knew that he was running faster than they could ever hope to. But he was tired of always running. It seemed to him that he ran more than he did anything else, something that didn't exactly make him feel better about himself. But he didn't have time to dwell on issues of his self esteem. He had a more important focus right now. He was almost there, so close now...if that kid in red hadn't taken out that one guard, he may have never known where to go...perhaps he should thank him someday. There it was. The door bearing Kvar's insignia. He was so close now...so close. Anticipation rose inside of him, and he was distracted by bloodlust and fantasies of revenge. So distracted that he didn't notice the Desian archer several feet away from his target until he felt the arrow pierce the flesh on his left shoulder. A cry of pain and rage escaped him as he fell, but he quickly regained his footing, startling both the archer who had shot him and the Desians that had been following him.

"What the-?" the archer exclaimed. He was dead before he could finish his sentence, but the attacker was caught off guard by the other two.

_No more running.._

"Die you little bastard!" He was thrown into a wall before he could turn around. Unfortunately for him, the wall was made of glass and he suddenly found himself on a conveyor belt, along with...people? What? The people were dressed in rags and looked battered and much abused. Of course...this _was_ a human ranch... The two Desians leapt through the shattered glass after him and pushed the prisoners out of the way while they chased after their bloody prey. His arms and face were bleeding badly. There must be dozens of glass shards embedded in his skin... He dodged as many of the ragged people as he could, but it made little difference as his assailants struck out at them every chance they got. Where were these people being sent to? No, that wasn't important. But he was going to fight for them as well. He wasn't going to run anymore.

He turned to his pursuers, and bared his teeth. The two Desians stopped. They were unprepared for such a feral response. Cautiously raising their weapons they slowly advanced toward him, never taking their eyes off of his. He crouched into a ready position, and this too, took them off guard, but after a moment, he realized that they found it funny. They were looking at him like he was some sort of animal...had they recognized him? No, they couldn't, it was so long ago...

"What's the matter, kid?" one of the men taunted. "Don't want to play our games?" The men laughed and blind rage welled up in his chest.

_No more running..._

"Die!" he snarled, hurtling himself at them. The Desians lowered their weapons in shock, and he caught them both in the chest with his arms, as the three of them crashed through the wall of the conveyor hall, which was also made of glass. The Desians were unprepared for this and the wind was knocked out of them as they hit the ground. They lay there coughing and gasping, while he neatly rolled off of them and leapt backward, back into a crouch.

"What the hell is going on here?" a voice behind him thundered. He turned and his eyes widened.

"You." he snarled. Kvar turned his back on the group of people behind him who were looking at the Desian Grand Cardinal with the same expression of loathing he was sure was plastered on his own face. Kvar however, grinned evilly.

"So!" he said gleefully. "You've decided to join our little party. And here I was, thinking my little product was dead." As Kvar walked toward him he narrowed his eyes and his hand went slowly to his sword...

"I'm going to kill you." he whispered, every syllable dripping with hate. Kvar laughed.

"Now now, is that really any way to talk to your father?" he sneered. "Because really, if you think about it, that's just what I am."

"SHUT UP!" he roared, slashing viciously at Kvar's body. The Cardinal tried to block the attack but failed miserably. "You...What you did to me..." Kvar held his hand to his chest, laughing despite his deep wound.

"Don't you like the results, my little product?" he said, advancing. The group behind Kvar was watching him intently, except for the kid in red. He had his swords at the ready and was looking at Kvar with absolute loathing in his eyes.

"Give me one reason why you deserve to live you disgusting piece of filth!" he screamed. "You don't even know what this does to me! Die you bastard scum! DIE!" He felt the rage take over his body felt his bones shifting into another crouch, then a leap. He was on top of the disgusting creature mercilessly hacking and slashing with the blade of his sword, blinded by rage, he savoured the screams of agony and the blood as it splattered onto his face, into his grinning mouth. The two Desians he'd tackled through the glass wall pulled him off roughly and threw him into a computer of some sort. Unprepared for this attack, he was stunned and lay there with the wind knocked out of him, coughing. He quickly regained himself and readied himself for another attack but the hilt of a sword was suddenly slammed into the back of his head and the edges of his vision went black. The two Desians began savagely beating on him, slashing his arms and back with their swords, kicking his sides and head mercilessly.

He was saved by the kid in red.

End Chapter III

Attack


	5. Chapter IV Explosions and Secret Passage

**Disclaimer**: Wow...I think I'm really going overboard with all the updates in one day, haha. I am going to be soooooo sore from typing. Uhm...yes.. No fun disclaimer this time. I do not own Tales of Symphonia, tis property of Namco. Midna belongs to Nintendo. Everyone else belongs to me, believe it or not. Onward!

**Chapter IV**

_Explosions and Secret Passages_

It felt good to take revenge. Lloyd felt relief wash over him as he thought of avenging his mother, and yet he still felt unsatisfied as he and Kratos slashed viciously at the Desian Grand Cardinal, Kvar. Why was Kratos helping him again? He wondered this for a minute, then decided he didn't care.

"I can't believe I've lost..." Kvar gasped. "To...inferior...beings..."

"Feel the pain!" Kratos shouted as he stabbed his sword through Kvar's chest. "Of those inferior beings!" He pulled the blade out and stabbed again. "As you burn in hell!" With this he sheathed his sword and glared down at the body of the once powerful Kvar. The Desians who'd come crashing into the room with Kvar's attacker had taken off and left him laying bleeding and in a pile of shattered glass.

"If you two are finished..." Raine said warily, taken aback by the ferocity with which they'd murdered the Grand Cardinal. "I think I'll free the prisoners and set this place to self-destruct."

"Wait!" Colette protested. "What about that boy that came through the wall?" As if on cue, the boy in question heaved himself to his feet and spit out a mouthful of blood and glass. He groaned and swayed on his feet but Sheena quickly caught him before he fell. He coughed again, leaning heavily on her.

"Thanks.." he gasped, spitting out more blood and glass. Blood was dripping down his face from his forehead and running from the back of his head down his neck. There were multiple slashes on his chest and arms, and his clothes were completely blood-soaked.

"You okay?" Sheena asked, trying to steady him. The boy shrugged.

"So long as that son of a bitch is dead, I'm good." he said, then passed out, leaving Sheena to try and keep him up, at which she failed terribly. Sheena kneeled with him on the ground, looking inquiringly at her companions.

"A little help please?" she asked. Kratos strode over to her and heaved the bloody teen to his feet, where he drooped limply between the two.

"I can heal him when we get out of here," Raine told them over her shoulder. "I've released the prisoners. They should be a safe distance away now."

"Then set it to self-destruct and let's get out of here too!" Genis exclaimed. Raine nodded. She clicked away at buttons on the machines, while they whirred and beeped.

"There." she said. "We've got about...five minutes, let's hurry."

... ... ... ... ... ...

They were halfway out of the ranch when he began to regain consciousness. Kratos was carrying him on his back, and was surprisingly still able to keep pace with the others. He groaned and coughed again as he opened his eyes and when he realized what was going on, struggled until Kratos dropped him. He seemed to have gained a bit of strength back for he landed on his feet, and stood on his own looking around.

"Wait, what the hell is going on?" he demanded. Raine stopped and turned to him.

"There's no time to explain!" she exclaimed. "We've only got two minutes before this place becomes a pile of rubble!" The boy shook his head.

"Self-destruct, eh? You're not going to make it going that way!" he said. "I know a quicker way out of here!" The others looked quizzically at him.

"What?" Genis asked. "How?" The boy was busy looking around them, as if searching for something.

"I've had to escape from here before, and when you watch what they do, you tend to pick up a few things," he explained. "Ah!" He darted over to a plain looking wall with surprising agility for someone who'd been unconscious merely a moment ago. He ran his hand along the wall at eye level and began poking at a small, shadowed area. The wall beeped and slid open as a door, revealing a long, empty corridor. Apparently he'd been punching in a code.

"Whoa!" Lloyd exclaimed. The boy leaned against the door frame, panting heavily.

"This goes straight outside." he said weakly. "Follow me, unless you _want_ to stay here and die.." He stumbled ahead of them and after a second of hesitation, the others followed, Kratos catching up and supporting the other red-head as they ran. It turned out that he'd known what he was talking about. The door at the end of the hall had indeed led outside and they made it to their shelter in the trees mere seconds before the ranch exploded in a burst of fire and shards of metal. The group collapsed gasping on the forest floor while their unexpected saviour coughed and spit out more blood. Wiping his mouth on the back of his gloved hand, he regarded the group for a moment, and then leaned against the trunk of a tree. Perhaps Kratos was imagining it, but his shadow seemed much darker than the others around him..

"Good old secret passages.." the boy said weakly. "They're the only reason I'm still living...barely." Raine looked at him as he slid down the base of the tree into a sitting position. He watched her warily as she approached him, studying his outlandish appearance. His hair was brown with a reddish tinge, and his eyes were a piercing blue. The skin underneath all of the blood was pale white, and he wore a long black coat, with a red vest underneath, beige trousers and red and white boots. A broadsword hung at his lower back, and a pouch was strapped at his side. She also noticed an oddly shaped scar on the part of his chest that was visible.

"I'm going to heal you," she told him. "But first, I want to know who you are and why you are here. If you're our enemy, I don't want you going free only to come back and attack us. I was watching your fighting. You seem to be quite skilled and we wouldn't want you as our opponent." The injured boy smiled.

"Sounds like a plan," he said hoarsely. "Healing me in exchange for information I mean." He coughed again and impatiently wiped the blood from his nose and lips. He appeared thoughtful for a moment, but as he opened his mouth to speak, he was cut off by a shrill voice that seemed to shatter the night air around them.

End Chapter IV

Explosions and Secret Passages


	6. Chapter V Strange Companions

**Disclaimer**: Okay now this is just starting to get ridiculous...but I'm having fun so let's just roll with it. At least I waited a few days...So, buddy, how does it feel to have the crap kicked out of you by Desians?

Kid: "I f***king hate you."

Wavemasterkaz: "Aww, now don't be like that.."

Kid:*death glare*

Wavemasterkaz: "Do my disclaimer."

Kid: "F**k you."

Wavemasterkaz: "Come on, don't make me get them again."

Kid: "I should kill you right now." *glares and pouts* "You always nearly kill me."

Wavemasterkaz: "Pleaaaaaaasssseeee?"

Kid: "If I do, will you f**k off?"

Wavemasterkaz: "Perhaps.."

Kid: "She owns me, unfortunately and a few other original characters, but Tales of Symphonia is Namco's, and Midna is Nintendo's. I hate my life, screw you all, goodbye."

Wavemasterkaz: "My characters really don't like me, do they?"

**Chapter V**

_Strange Companions_

"Darkyyy!" Before anyone could even begin to look around for the source of the noise, the injured boy was violently tackled by a brown and grey blur, which turned out to be a child. As the child began to hug, chatter at and examine the injuries of 'Darky', Genis looked at him and failed to stifle a laugh.

" 'Darky'?" he snorted. The boy being attacked by the child turned his attention to Genis.

"Long story..." he sighed, looking weary. The child went on chattering and practically strangling 'Darky', ignoring everyone else, and while everyone's attention was on the small creature, Raine was regarding the injured boy.

"It's certainly a rather..._unusual_ name you have, er..._Darky_" she said. Darky shrugged.

"It's Sora, actually." No one else noticed the odd look Kratos gave him. Sora looked around at the group and then at Raine. "My name is Sora Reeves. I'm sixteen, and I was born in Iselia, but I've lived in Luin for most of my life. I have no idea who my father is or where he is for that matter, I am an enemy of Kvar and the Desians in general, and I'm currently going after one Lord Yggdrasill. I think that's about everything you really need to know to judge me."

He sat where he was, looking up at Raine with a small smile on his face, though it was obvious from his unfocused eyes that his head injuries were taking their toll. The child had fallen silent during Sora's explanation, and was sitting contentedly in his lap, looking up at them through messy brown hair with bright green eyes. Lloyd looked around at the others, then said,

"Yggdrasill...isn't that the leader of the Desians?" Sora nodded. Kratos looked at him thoughtfully.

"So it would appear that we have a common enemy," he said.

"Yeah.." Lloyd agreed. He looked at Sora who was yet again wiping away the blood that was running from his nose. "Hey, you should come with us. If...that's alright with everyone else." Everyone but Kratos and Raine happily consented, but after some convincing from Sheena, who had started out as their enemy and was now their friend, they agreed that another guardian for Colette may be rather helpful.

"Thanks," Sora said with a smile. "I'd be glad to come along, if...you didn't mind more than just me." Colette looked at him quizzically.

"What do you mean?" she asked. Sora nodded at the child in his lap, and glanced off into the trees.

"I'm not travelling alone," he explained. "I don't think they'd mind having extra companions at all, but it's all up to you, really.."

"I have only one more question." Raine told him. Sora turned his blue eyes to hers.

"And it is...?"

"How exactly did you know Kvar?" she asked quietly. "He called you his 'product', and said that he was technically your father. Why is that?" Sora looked away and it was a long time before he replied.

"I'm sorry, but... I really don't want to talk about it right now. Let's just say he ruined everything for me, I'll never forgive him, and leave it at that."

... ... ... ... ... ...

The weeks which followed Sora's group joining the Chosen's were eventful at the very least and Lloyd and his friends realized that they had come across some very strange people. This was something that only deepened the mistrust that Kratos and Raine held for them. Sora himself had been a very companionable boy and most of the group had taken an immediate liking to him, until the night that Sheena had caught him talking to his shadow. They were camped just outside of Luin, two nights after the escape from the ranch, and as Sheena was helping Lloyd look for firewood, she saw Sora sitting by himself, arguing with what appeared to be his shadow on a rock.

"Ugh, you just don't get it, do you?" He shook his head and stared at the rock for a moment and then sighed angrily. "Whatever, just...leave me alone, alright? I don't want your 'advice' right now." When Sora had returned to the fireside that night it was to an awkward silence that Raine cleverly passed off as the anxiety about the incidents at the ranch. Everyone but Lloyd and Colette gave Sora a little more space than was really necessary after that, yet he barely seemed to notice. Perhaps he was used to it.

The child, who was named Koda, was also rather odd. As Genis pointed out on the third day of their travels together, he never ate at meals. Sora shrugged it off by saying that the child had never really eaten that much, and Koda merely giggled at them, his cheeks dimpled with baby fat. No one really paid much attention to his eating habits until he returned on the night after Sora's conversation with his shadow, with blood smeared on his cheek and dribbling from the corner of his mouth. When Genis pointed it out in shock, he merely licked it off and grinned, showing blood-stained teeth. He was given more space than necessary as well.

The only remotely normal companion they seemed to have picked up was Eccah, a girl who had timidly approached them from out of the trees on the night they'd escaped with Sora from the ranch. She kept to herself and spoke rarely, keeping her eyes to the ground, or on Sora. She replied only when spoken to directly and focused most of her attention on looking after the overly-energetic Koda. As Kratos studied the three of them one evening while keeping watch, he noticed that she looked extraordinarily like Colette in a way. Her hair was golden blonde like the Chosen's, though it was shorter and rather untidy, with one longer braid that hung down over her shoulder, her eyes were deep blue, and her skin was very pale. Her clothes were just as outlandish as her possibly insane companion, being a royal blue jacket with white designs on them that reminded Kratos of elven symbols, a somewhat revealing black and red top underneath, a blue skirt, grey tights, and loose white and blue boots. She wore a red scarf around her neck and blue gloves on her hands that bore the same designs as her jacket. As she slept, her body was curled into a tight ball, cradling Koda tightly against her chest. Sora lay a little ways off, sprawled across the ground with his left boot falling off of his foot, his mouth hanging wide open. A blade of grass fluttered in front of his nose as he breathed. It would have amused Kratos had he not been doubting the boy's sanity. It wasn't possible that she lived in his...

As he watched, Koda opened his bright green eyes and wiggled out of Eccah's grasp. He dusted off the knees of his trousers and hurried over to where Sora lay. He curled up next to the older boy, using his arm as a pillow and sighed contentedly as he fell back to sleep. No one knew why, but Koda was obsessed with his older friend. The young boy rarely left his side, always asking to ride on his back, and holding his hand at every possible chance. Eccah too, seemed rather focused on him. What was it that drew people to the blue eyed Kvar hater? It was like he was a friendly puppy that everyone wanted to keep...

Kratos poked at the now smouldering fire in an attempt to build it up again, but the flames were far too gone. With a sigh, he relit it by magic, and as he returned to his comfortable position of leaning on a nearby tree, he thought he saw a pair of orange eyes staring at him from out of the darkness. He quickly turned his head to look, but there were no eyes, only the firelight flickering off of the sleeping faces of his allies. Sora's shadow still seemed darker than the others around him, even in the darkness of the night.

Strange...

**End Chapter V**

Strange Companions


	7. Chapter VI My Anna

**Disclaimer**: Woooo, more updates! So yeah...here goes. No fun disclaimer this time either. I don't own Tales of Symphonia or Twilight Princess. They belong to Namco and Nintendo. Woot.

**Chapter VI**

_My Anna_

Time went on as time has a habit of doing, and often, their travels led them from one human ranch to another. Each ranch met the same fate as Kvar's, as Raine left a trail of destruction behind her. She was quickly becoming a master of Desian explosive technology, something Sora seemed to find very interesting.

"You should teach me someday," he told her. "That way if we're ever separated I can keep blowin' 'em up myself." He seemed to rather like this idea, for a very unsettling grin planted itself on his face and remained there for a long time. He and Lloyd seemed to get along very well and after the first few days, they were acting as if they'd known each other all their lives. There was something in the way that they teased and bothered each other that could make anyone believe that they were brothers, though they had no relation to each other whatsoever. Kratos was unsure of what he thought of this, but as no harm seemed to be coming of it, he left it alone. But seeing Lloyd, seeing his...no, he must not think of Lloyd as his son. That part of his life had died fifteen years ago, along with his family... Seeing Lloyd so happy to find a new friend only made him miss his Anna even more. The group had returned to Luin to check on the repairs that a man named Pietro had taken charge of, and being in Anna's hometown made Kratos feel, if possible, even more alone.

He stood by himself at the end of the pier, staring out into the sparkling water that flowed there from Lake Sinoa, watching the moon's reflection wave across the rippling water. The loneliness in his heart was suffocating him but his face betrayed no emotions, it was the stony mask of indifference that he kept to show the world, so that no one would know the hurt he felt in his heart, his very soul. He sighed as he remembered his life before the wretched Kvar had ruined everything for him, before his world had been torn apart. When he'd still had his Anna... Before...

He stood lost in a world of memories for what could have been hours, but time meant nothing to him where he was. He was at home in his memories, reliving the times when he'd been happier, happier than ever before. He had a wife whom he loved more than his own life, and who, miraculously, loved him the same way. He had a son who looked at him with wonder and love so profound in his eyes that Kratos couldn't begin to fathom how someone so small could love him as much as the boy did. He had a family and something he could always look forward to coming home to, whenever he'd had to go away. He had something to live for, something to protect... When he'd lost all of that.. The only thing that had prevented him from following was his cowardice. He was afraid to die. And Anna...she would never forgive him if he tried to follow her.

"Anna.." he murmured into the darkness, reaching his hand into his pocket. He pulled out an oval shaped locket on a gold chain and stared at the name engraved into it, afraid to open it and see the picture inside. His hands shook as he stood alone, listening to the silence of the night, and before he could stop it, he felt a tear slide down his cheek. "Why did it have to be you...?" He clenched his fist around the locket, willing himself to open it, to see her smiling face looking up at him. But he couldn't do it. He couldn't bring himself to do that, he didn't deserve to be happy, even for a moment...Not after what he had done.. A second tear followed the first, then a third and a fourth. His mask had broken.

He fell to his knees and his body shook with sobs as he clutched the locket to his chest, holding on to the only thing he had left of her. His tears left little wet drops on the pavement and he didn't even try to regain himself. He let himself feel the pain he'd been repressing for so long, felt the sweet release of his sorrow.

"I...I'm so sorry.." he whispered between strangled breaths. "I'm sorry...my Anna.."

The sun had already begun to rise when the stony mask could return to his face.

**End Chapter VI**

My Anna

A/N: Wow...I think I almost made myself cry there, I feel bad. While I was writing I was listening to Yuna's Ballad from the FFX-2 soundtrack, and it just fit so well, it sounded so sad, and made me feel even worse. I'm so mean to these poor people! Don't worry Kratos, I'll make it up to you, even though I didn't come up with the idea of you killing her in the first place! Yeah so don't mind that it's so short either it just wouldn't sound good if it was long.


	8. Chapter VII A Hint of His Past

**Disclaimer:** Yeah...I almost feel bad for posting something so soon after the last chapter, which made me feel sad.. But when I get inspired, I go on a roll, so here goes. So, Eccah, how about you do my disclaimer today?

Eccah: "..."

Wavemasterkaz: "Oh come on, don't be so shy. Just tell them I don't own stuff."

Eccah: "Uhm, well..." *gulp* "W-wavemasterkaz doesn't own...uhm, T-tales of Symphonia, or-or anything. It's Namco's...and...M-midna is Nintendo's..."

Wavemasterkaz: "Now was that so hard?"

Eccah: "N-no..but..c-can I go now...?"

Wavemasterkaz: "Sure, we're done here."

Eccah: *hurries away with face hidden under hair*

Wavemasterkaz: "Why does everyone have such a hard time doing these things?"

**Chapter VII**

_A Hint of His Past_

It had been nearly a month since Lloyd had welcomed Sora and his friends into his group, but only now had curiosity struck him. He approached his good-natured friend early morning one day and walked beside him. Sora was walking with his hands behind his head and turned his face to look at the boy in red.

"Hey Sora," Lloyd said. "I've kind of been wondering something for a while." Sora raised one eyebrow.

"Hm?" was his response. Lloyd scratched the back of his head. It seemed sort of awkward to bring up something that was such an old subject.

"Why does Koda call you 'Darky'?" he asked. Sora shrugged, a humorous looking action considering his arms were behind his head.

"Short for Dark Fury, a title, I guess..It's hard to explain, really," he replied. "I'll have to show you sometime." He grinned at his friend, a smile that seemed sort of familiar in a vague sort of way. Lloyd grinned back.

"Alright," he said. "One more thing though." Sora nodded, still grinning slightly. "Well.." This question made him feel truly awkward. Did he really have the right to ask? "Will you tell me how you knew Kvar? You said he did something to you, and it affects you somehow... And.. he called you his 'product', right? What's up with that?" He looked over at the other boy, gauging his reaction. As he feared, Sora's face had fallen and was slowly becoming more serious, almost angry looking. He lowered his arms and looked away.

"That bastard took everything from me." he said quietly. He stared at the ground for a moment, then said, "You...know about his experiments, right? I mean...I heard him say that your mother...had something to do with them.." Lloyd nodded, his face falling as well. He said nothing, only waited for Sora to continue. "Well," Sora said. "My mother was a victim of those experiments...and...so was I." He looked away again, and it seemed he was intentionally avoiding looking at his spiky haired friend.

"You mean...the exsphere experiments?" Lloyd asked quietly. Sora looked sideways at him without really meeting his gaze.

"Sort of..." he said. He raised his face to look up at the cloudy sky and his eyes grew distant. "Before I was born, my mother was a captive at Kvar's human ranch. She told me that she heard him talking to himself a lot. She said he was tired of never getting anywhere and never gaining higher status from his Lord Yggdrasill. My mother also told me that he planned on taking matters into his own hands, and creating a new weapon that could overthrow the leader of the Desians, so that he himself could take over. He continued his work with the Angelus Project, but worked on his own project in secret. I don't know what it was called." He took a deep breath and looked back at the ground as he continued.

"She...didn't know where he learned it, but apparently he found out that he could alter someone's genes and make them more powerful. Rather than risk harm to himself by trying it, he used my mother as one of the test subjects. Kvar had his Desian minions gather blood samples from the most dangerous and powerful monsters in the world, which took several years, and he later injected their DNA into his test subjects, altering their genetic makeup. Most of them either fought it off, or died."

"But your mother lived?" Lloyd asked, horrified by Sora's story. Sora smiled grimly.

"Well obviously, otherwise I wouldn't be standing here telling you this, now would I?" he replied. The smile left his face however as he said, "Her DNA was altered and his experiment was a success, sort of. She became a monster of sorts, but he couldn't control her, as he'd wanted to. She escaped, cursed by his experiments, and he tried for years afterward to find her."

"Just like my mom..." Lloyd said quietly. Sora nodded, then sighed. Lloyd looked at him. "Looks like we have one more thing in common, though. Just something that can bring us closer, and make us stronger allies, right?" Sora sighed again, his eyes full of sadness.

"Yeah I guess.." he muttered.

"But...you said something about how it does something to you.." Lloyd said suddenly. "Did the experiments affect you too?" Sora looked away from him.

"Looks like it's gonna rain," he said. "We should find shelter somewhere." Avoiding Lloyd's eyes, he walked away from the group, with Koda following eagerly behind. Lloyd looked curiously after him. Sora had completely avoided his question..why?

Several feet behind him, Kratos was wondering the same thing.

... ... ... ... ... ...

It was Eccah's turn to prepare dinner that night and as they sheltered from the rain in a small cave, she shyly served them each a steaming bowl of red-coloured soup, peering at them through her golden hair, which nearly obscured her blue eyes. She said little as she handed them their bowls, and blushed when Genis complimented her on her vegetable soup, which according to him, rivalled his own.

"My brother taught me," she said quietly. "He's very good, much better than I am. I would like it if you were to try his cooking someday." For the first time since they'd met her, she smiled at someone other than Sora, who was hungrily slurping his own soup, despite the fact that it was probably burning his throat.

"Your brother?" Sheena inquired curiously. "How come he's not travelling with you?" Eccah looked down at her own untouched bowl of soup. After a moment, she said sadly,

"I don't know where he is." Peering up at Sheena again, she said, "That's..why I was travelling with Sora. I thought that if I went from place to place I might find him. He was taken away to a human ranch, but..he hasn't been at any we've been to so far.." No one had the heart to ask if she even knew if he was alive.

... ... ... ... ... ...

It was Kratos' turn to keep watch for the night again and he stared out at the rain, feeling rather irritable. He hated the rain, and it bored him to be stuck here, unable to even patrol the area and be on a better lookout. He could go outside, but...that would involve getting wet and he didn't relish the idea of sitting in this damp, cold cave in wet clothes. So, he settled for watching the cave entrance, with the occasional glance over the sleeping residents of the shelter. The flickering firelight cast eerie shadows over the sleeping bodies, and it once again frustrated him that Sora's shadow was darker than the rest. How could something even _be_ that dark? It irked him.

"Still doubting his sanity, Kratie?" a voice whispered to him in the dark, but it echoed on the cave walls, and he couldn't locate its source. He glanced wearily around and sighed.

"So you're back?" he replied quietly. "What happened to Kvar?" There was silence for a moment and then the cave was filled with the sound of hysterical giggling. It was so loud that Kratos worried it would wake someone, but he seemed to be the only one who could hear it.

"Kvar?" the voice said incredulously. "You thought that I'd allied myself with _Kvar?_" The voice giggled uncontrollably again and then said, "Wow, Kratos, seriously, have you lost it?" The orange eyes materialised beside him, seeming to emerge from his own shadow cast by the dim firelight.

"Did you forget that we're friends, Kratie?" she asked, her body beginning to take shape. The dim outline of her body was barely visible in the darkness, but he saw her cross her arms and legs, as if sitting in the air in front of him.

"Haven't I told you?" Kratos retorted, looking indifferent, showing her his stony mask. "We are not friends." The shadowy being chuckled, and a gleaming white grin appeared underneath the glowing orange eyes.

"Sure, sure, whatever you say," she said, also sounding indifferent. She put a shadowy hand on his shoulder. "Just don't forget that I helped you once and now you owe me the favour." Kratos sighed.

"What do you want from me?" he said, his annoyance evident in his voice. The orange eyes narrowed as they seemed to have a habit of doing.

"Not now," she said. "But soon he'll need you and you can repay the favour by being there for him." Kratos looked at her and raised one eyebrow. The shadows around him lessened as she began to disappear back into her dark hiding place. "I won't tell you now." she said. "Maybe you'll figure it out on your own soon enough? Who knows? Heeheehee.." The eyes disappeared but Kratos could still feel her presence.

"Am I to figure everything out on my own?" he muttered. The voice giggled.

"Maybe." Sora rolled over in his sleep and between snores, muttered something that startled Kratos and kept him awake for the rest of the night.

"Shut up Midna."

**End Chapter VII**

A Hint of His Past


	9. Chapter VIII Confusion and Sickness

**Disclaimer:** Well, here we are again!

_Indeffinate: _"Kay so I vote I get to do next disclaimer! :D"

Wavemasterkaz: "Haha okay. Let's do it here(over msn) and I'll just copy and paste it."

_Indeffinate_: "Sounds good to me! :D"

Wavemasterkaz: "I'm putting this part in there too hah. Now let's get this shindig underway."

_Ideffinate_: "Sounds good maybe I'll just chill here in the disclaimer instead of leaving like everyone else. Watch the show ya know."

Wavemasterkaz: "Oh yes, that will be grand. _You_ at least don't hate me, hahhh."

_Indeffinate_: "What the hell did you do to everyone else anyways?"

Wavemasterkaz: "I don't even know, they all just hate me...I'm so unloved!" *cries*

_Indeffinate_:" Haha, feel the loving, Meemis! And...I didn't think crying was in this script..."

Wavemasterkaz: "You're forgetting, I'm not Meemis here, I'm the ALL powerful Wavemasterkaz."

_Indeffinate_: "Some big wavemaster, breaks down in tears every couple of minutes." *sly grin*

Wavemasterkaz: *Smites you* "Okay, so..yeah.."

_Indeffinate_: "Goo onnnn."

Wavemasterkaz: "Uhm...I thought you were doing my disclaimer, not just chilling here making fun of me!" *death glare*

_Indeffinate_: "But it's so easy to do, and what, no fancy introductions?"

Wavemasterkaz:*sigh* "Alright fine, ladies and gentlemen, the lady who's sister smells of beef (not really), Indeffinate! Woohoo, hooray. :)"

_Indeffinate_: "Hahaa we will have to get Beef in here to do a different disclaimer. Ahem. Ladies and Gentlemen, I thank you for your warm welcome. I would love to stay and chat, however, I have a disclaimer to do! The great smelly and weepy Wavemasterkaz does not own any of the Tales of Symphonia characters, as much as she wishes she does. They belong to Namco, and as for Midna, she is property of Nintendo so no suing!"

Wavemasterkaz: "I have ginger ale." :D "...And I am not smelly!"

_Indeffinate_: "I disagree, cabbage face." *grins*

Wavemasterkaz: "Meanie."

_Indeffinate_: "And I had ginger ale earlier today! And you love me." *grins again*

Wavemasterkaz: "But was your ginger ale a one litre? Hm? Hm? HM?"

_Indeffinate_: "Noooo, it was a nice little drinking size of 355mL. Now are we done here so you can get on with the story?"

Wavemasterkaz: "Yes. Yes we are."

**Chapter VIII**

_Confusion and Sickness_

It frustrated him. Now that he knew, he couldn't figure out why, which made him feel powerless, something Kratos Aurion hated more than anything else. He knew that Midna currently resided in Sora's shadow, and he was no longer doubting the boy's sanity, but why? What connection did this young red-haired boy have to the shadow-dwelling pain in the neck? She seemed to know something about him that Kratos didn't, and was obviously not planning on telling him anytime soon. Every night that he was on "guard dog duty" as Sora and Lloyd had begun to call it, she appeared to him out of the shadows and taunted him with her smug smile and irritating giggles.

"Do you promise to return that favour, Kratie?" she asked him one night, her large orange eyes very close to his face. He could feel her cold breath on his face, and as she moved in front of him, he noticed that her body seemed to have more solidity than it had before. The glowing blue patterns were starting to return, very faintly, and he could make out her outline better this time.

"What do you want from me?" he asked yet again. He got no reply, only a giggle and then silence. Yes, she was as irritating as ever, and he was still as frustrated with his situation as ever. What was she up to? Apparently he would have to wait and see.

They were nearing the final seal on the Chosen's journey, the Tower of Salvation. When this was stated, a look of genuine surprise appeared on Sora's face. He looked at Colette with an astonished expression, and after a moment of gaping at her, said,

"Wait a sec...you're the Chosen?" He looked around at the others with shock still plastered on his face while Eccah stood by his side shaking her head and smiling in an almost hopeless sort of way. Lloyd and Genis began to laugh and Sora looked at them in an embarrassed sort of way. "Wow.." he said. "Talk about clueless." From that moment on, he doubled his efforts to protect her and prove his worth as one of their companions.

By this time, the mistrust that everyone had held for the three newest members of the group had pretty much evaporated, and they seemed very happy to be accepted. Sora's conversation with his shadow hadn't been forgotten, but it seemed to matter very little since he was very likable and he and his friends had in fact been very useful. Sora's skills in combat had been very helpful, and Eccah had been very quick in learning healing arts from Raine. Koda was not quite as skilled as the other two in either field, but thanks to his hunting skills, they always had fresh food. The trio did have their oddities, but Lloyd and his companions had grown rather used to them. But every day, Kratos wondered. Why? Why this boy? And not only did Midna insist on tormenting him through Sora, she also seemed to enjoy waving his "newfound fatherhood" in his face. When she wasn't pretending to be about to reveal information, she was asking how he felt knowing that Lloyd was his long lost son and bringing up painful memories of his lost life.

... ... ... ... ... ...

It happened suddenly. There was screaming. Wait...screaming? Who was screaming? His vision was fading in from black, fading in to a flickering orange light. He tasted something warm and thick in his mouth.. Was it blood? He was bleeding? No..it wasn't his. What was going on? He was standing in the middle of a city. A city? When did he get here? Wait...the city was on fire! Why wasn't someone doing something? Why were they all simply running? As he looked around in confusion, a young child tripped and fell at his feet. He hurried to help her up, but as he approached, the child pointed at him and screamed. These people...they were running from...him? This made no sense, he'd just been with his friends only an hour ago, how did he get here? What was going on? He looked desperately around, trying to make sense of the situation. As he began to run he tripped over something and fell. Looking at his feet he was horrified to see a dead man laying there, his eyes wide and staring, his body torn and bloody. He'd been horribly mauled, but by what? He tried to get up and screamed as he caught sight of his reflection in a puddle on the ground. A pair of scarlet eyes stared back at him from shadows under red-brown hair, black marks on a dark face, and a mouth wide open in horror. A mouth that was dripping with blood. Blood that was not his.

What had he done?

... ... ... ... ... ...

"Darky! Hey, Darky, wake up!" A muffled sounding voice was fading in and out of his head. As Sora opened his eyes his vision was blurred, and despite the fact that the voice was becoming clearer, it still sounded muffled for some reason. The light hurt his eyes and his head felt as though someone had beaten it with a hammer. He groaned and as he groggily tried to sit up but a wave of dizziness made him lie back down.

"Are you alright?" he heard Raine ask. Looking over at her he smiled weakly and squinted at her blurred form.

"Y-yeah.." he said. "I think so..I just feel kind of dizzy." He tried to sit up again and even though another wave of dizziness hit him, he remained sitting, trying to focus his vision. Raine came over to him and put her hand over his forehead.

"You have a pretty high fever," she told him. "Maybe it would be best to rest for a while before continuing to the Tower of Salvation.." Sora shook his head and tried to stand up, swaying from another bout of dizziness. Lloyd reached out to help him, but smiled and nudged his hands away.

"No, don't worry about it," Sora said. "I'm alright." At least he no longer had to squint anymore, his vision had cleared up almost completely. Raine still looked concerned, but Sora gave her what he hoped was a reassuring smile. She let it go but as they made their way closer to their final destination, but he thought he saw her casting worried glances in his direction every so often.

... ... ... ... ... ...

Kratos was on "guard dog duty" again, and Midna had joined him in surveying the sleeping travellers. She said little tonight, and seemed preoccupied, but answered Kratos' questions as little as she always did. They sat in silence, Kratos gazing into the dying embers of the fire, Midna staring off into the darkest shadows of the night. Lloyd mumbled something and rolled over, his foot nudging Kratos' leg. He turned his gaze to the boy's face-he still refused to believe that Lloyd was his son-and sighed. It was difficult to live in denial when he looked so much like her... Midna looked at him, her orange eyes curious.

"So, Kratos..." she murmured. "Have you accepted it yet?" Kratos didn't answer, he merely sighed again and kicked at the dying fire. Midna narrowed her orange eyes and suddenly her face was in front of his. "Kratos," she said, none of her usual humour present in her voice. "You can't keep running away..they need you." Kratos looked up at her and met her gaze.

"They..?" he said. Midna's eyes widened, and she cast a quick glance at the sleeping group, though who she was looking at, he couldn't tell.

"I have to go," she said, and vanished into the darkness. As Kratos stared after her in surprise, he heard her voice echoing faintly in the night. "I'll be gone for a few days...take care of Sora for me...won't you?"

As Kratos sat in silence, contemplating what she said, he found himself again gazing at the boy's face. He was determined to believe that his son had died along with his Anna, but he couldn't stop himself from finding resemblances in Lloyd's face to his own. As he watched, Lloyd rolled over and his hand landed heavily on Sora's head. Sora grunted and kicked out in the direction of his unknown attacker, and his foot connected with Lloyd's knee. This began a kicking and punching war between the sleeping boys and Kratos couldn't help laughing. It was childish, but it felt good to find humour in things again. Perhaps the world was not as dark and bleak as he'd believed it to be since Anna's death... After a moment, he felt a strange sense of gratitude to these people. They'd accepted him without knowing who he was or where he'd come from, and had begun to consider him their friend. Friends... Getting up, he quietly checked on everyone in the group, pulling blankets over those they'd fallen off of, and making sure that everyone was asleep. As he reached where Sora and Lloyd were asleep, putting Lloyd's blanket back over him, he saw a sheen of sweat on Sora's forehead, despite the fact that he'd thrown his blanket off of himself earlier. He made sure that Lloyd was covered again, though it was probably a pointless effort, and then put his hand on Sora's head to check his temperature. He took his hand away in shock. His fever was so high that the heat hurt his hand. He needed a doctor.

_"Take care of Sora for me...won't you?"_

**End Chapter VIII**

Confusion and Sickness


	10. Chapter IX Asgard In Ruins

**Disclaimer:** Well, seeing as _Indeffinate_ cannot be here for this disclaimer because she's off watching a movie with her Daddy, I've got someone else here to help me with my disclaimer today. Please let me introduce once again, Sora!

Sora:*falls over*

Wavemasterkaz: "Dude..you okay?"

Sora: "Need...doctor..."

Wavemasterkaz: "Suck it up, you're fine."

Sora: "Dying..."

Wavemasterkaz: "Oh come on you baby, you're not that sick."

Sora:"..." *flies buzz around him*

Wavemasterkaz: "Wow..that was, uh...unexpected. Let's uhh..let's just get him outta here."

Sora:*vanishes into thin air*

Wavemasterkaz: "I do not own Tales of Symphonia or any of its characters, and I do not own Midna. Tales of Symphonia belongs to Namco and Midna is Nintendo's. Yes. Now, uhh...let's just..go find somewhere to bury Sora..."

Sora:*voice sounding muffled* "I'm not dead!"

**Chapter IX**

_Asgard in Ruins_

When morning came, Kratos alerted Raine to the situation and she agreed wholeheartedly with him. Despite the delay it would cause in their travels to the Tower of Salvation, they were taking Sora to Asgard, where he could rest until a doctor was found. He drowsed most of the way, mumbling deliriously and talking to his shadow again. When Kratos wasn't carrying him, he was stumbling along with them refusing to be helped and saying he was fine, though he obviously wasn't. His fever had started to drop by evening and he was a little less disoriented so they weren't quite as worried but a new fear struck them as they reached the City of Ruins. Before, "The City of Ruins" had been merely a title for Asgard, but now, the city was literally destroyed. The buildings were charred black, and the stone walls were crumbling and broken. The people seemed dismayed and there wasn't a place in sight that wasn't in ruins. The group stood at the city gate in horror, looking around at the city that had so recently been in chaos.

"What happened here..?" Lloyd whispered. No one had any answer for him. They began to make their way into the city, walking slowly, Sora leaning heavily on Sheena again for support, taking in the ravaged buildings, the charred stones and the lost homes. They looked sadly at a woman who was crying beside what had once been her home and was now a heap of broken wood and crumbled stone. What had happened here? As they stood wondering, Sora groaned and fell to his knees, Sheena trying to support him and failing. Koda whimpered and clutched onto the sick boy's hand, but he didn't respond.

"We can find out what has happened after we get him to a bed," Raine said decidedly. "Let's go to the inn for now." Lloyd nodded.

"Yeah.." he said, walking over to Sheena. The two of them hauled Sora to his feet, while he protested with another groan and struggled feebly. As they made their way to the inn, a woman in burnt looking ragged clothes stood in their path with an expression of pure horror and rage on her face. She said nothing, but suddenly threw a large stone with all her might at them, hitting Sora square in the mouth. He groaned again and looked up with fevered eyes.

"Demon!" the woman spat. "Monster! Spawn of Hell!" Lloyd handed Sora's arm to Kratos and approached the woman. She held her ground and stared furiously at him.

"What are you talking about!" he demanded. The woman spat in the direction of the others, and pointed a shaking finger at the blue eyed boy in the middle of them.

"That demon!" she shrieked. "It was him! That monster did this to our beloved city! He caused all of this! Monster! Demon!" She picked up another stone and threw it, but Lloyd caught it before it hit anyone.

"What?" he said in confusion. He turned to look at Sora, who was still staring at the woman with fevered eyes, as if he wasn't really seeing her. Lloyd turned back to the woman. "Sora can't have done all of this, he's been with us the whole time. Besides, Sora would never do anything like this, right Sora?" Sora said nothing, merely let his head drop and his body go limp.

"Lies!" the woman screeched. "I saw him with my own eyes, I saw him! He murdered my husband!" By now several more people had joined in the shouting and the group was surrounded by angry villagers. Sora raised his head and tried to stand up, swaying slightly. Koda stood protectively in front of him, glaring at the woman who had dared to throw a stone at his "Darky".

"I..I didn't-" Sora said hoarsely, then passed out again, falling limply between Sheena and Kratos. Koda whimpered and looked at him, then returned to glaring at the woman.

"I'm sorry, ma'am," Raine said calmly, slowly walking toward the distressed woman. "But Lloyd is right. Sora has been in our presence at all times for months, and to be honest, I really can't see him doing something like this either. I am very sorry for your husband's death but we really need to get him to a doctor. Please, let us through." At first the villagers refused to let them through but when Kratos, still supporting the unconscious Sora, drew his sword, they hastily moved out of the way.

... ... ... ... ... ...

His hearing returned before his consciousness did. He was still asleep as far as he could tell, but he could hear what was going on around him. How did that even make sense? He tried to open his eyes but couldn't move. His body felt heavy and despite the fact that he was covered with numerous blankets, he felt very cold. His head was pounding and he felt a sheen of sweat on his face. Why did he feel so horrible?

"Even though they all said they saw him do it, I don't think that Sora would do something like this," he heard Raine say. "And he's been with us for months. When could he have possibly gotten here to do it without us noticing?" Someone banged their hand on a table.

"No." it was Lloyd. "Sora's not like that, he wouldn't do something like that." Someone sighed.

"Well what are we going to do?" Kratos asked. "The villagers are obviously not going to let us leave here without a fight, and it's dangerous to leave Sora here alone while we look for a doctor. They seem quite convinced that he's the one who attacked them." There was no reply for a moment, and Sora felt himself slowly regaining his consciousness. He moaned. Now that he was waking up he felt even worse. He heard some shuffling and as he struggled to open his eyes, he felt something cool and damp on his forehead. He opened his eyes and regretted it. The light seemed painfully bright. He moaned again, closing his eyes tightly, only to have one of his eyelids pulled open painfully. Raine's face came into view.

"How are you feeling?" she asked. He tried and failed to push her hand away.

"I'd feel better if you'd stop trying to pull off my eyelid." he grumbled, and Raine let him go.

"Well, he's not delirious anymore at least," she said. "But we still need a doctor. I will go and look for one in the city. Hopefully we won't be refused because of what the townspeople believe he's done."

"I'll go with you," Sheena told her. "Just in case they get hostile." Raine nodded and the two left. As they did, Kratos suggested that the others get some sleep, as he noticed that Genis was developing dark circles under his eyes. Apparently they thought it was a good idea for they went to bed without a word. He sighed and sat down at the small table in their room, which was rather large, and leaned forward onto the table, propping his head up on his hand. This was a delay, but he went along with it, hoping Midna would count this as repaying the favour he owed her. He was taking care of Sora as she asked, or at least, making sure that _someone_ was taking care of him. Would it be good enough? Before long the sounds of Lloyd's snores came from one of the other beds on the level above them, and Kratos figured it was safe to assume that all five of them were asleep. Or rather, Genis, Eccah, Koda and Lloyd would be sleeping and the Chosen would be pretending to be. He knew that she had lost her ability to sleep. It was all part of becoming an angel, after all...

"Kratos.." Sora's voice brought him out of his reverie. He turned to look at the ill boy in the bed nearest him. Sora's flushed face was turned toward him and his blue eyes were slightly glazed over, but he seemed coherent enough. "I'm sorry for making everyone stop for me.. I know you don't like delays so I'm sorry if it bothers you at all." Kratos shook his head.

"No," he said. "It's fine. No one can expect you to travel in your condition. Just sleep." Sora smiled and rolled over but it was hours before he could finally forget about the accusations from the villagers and fall asleep.

**End Chapter**

Asgard in Ruins


	11. Chapter X Strong Heart

**Disclaimer**: Here we are again, folks, updating for the first time in a little while. _Indeffinate_ is still unavailable for disclaimer-ing at this point in time, as I'm writing this while I'm at school and she doesn't go to the same school as me. So...yes, it's just me today. But, here's a quote that she said after reading the last chapter.

_Indeffinate_: "As if you made him deathly ill."

And now, the disclaimer. I do not own Tales of Symphonia or any of its characters, places, or themes(unfortunately), as they belong to Namco. I also do not own Midna as she is property of Nintendo. I own Sora "Darky" Reeves, Eccah, and Koda, as well as Lukas, Orin, and a certain other character that may make an appearance today. Yes.

**Chapter X**

_Strong Heart_

Raine and Sheena returned just before sunrise wiht a withered-looking old man in a dirty looking robe. His eyes were glassy and white.

"But he's blind!" Lloyd exclaimed when the man was introduced as the doctor of Asgard. "He won't be able to see what's wrong, will he?"

"The people of the city say he's very good at what he does," Raine told him. "Though many of them were reluctant to tell us how to find him. They're all very sure that the city's destruction was Sora's doing."

"While I do not wish to lend aid to a murderer," the old man said in a voice that was surprisingly strong coming from such a frail figure. "My doctor's heart cannot leave an ill boy unhealed. Bring me to him please."

"I'm right here." Sora said quietly, making everyone in the room jump. No one had noticed him get out of bed. He stood a few feet away, looking at them with eyes that were still glazed over. The once piercing blue was frosted looking, and his pale skin was flushed, but he stood looking at them with an expression of grim conviction.

"You're still ill," Raine said sternly. "You should still be in bed. You aren't ready to be up yet." Sora shook his head.

"No." he said bluntly. Everyone looked at him in shock. Though they'd only known him a few months, no one had ever heard Sora talk back to Raine before. There was determination in his glassy eyes as he said,

"I'm supposed to be helping you take care of Colette, as a guardian. I don't want to be the one who has to be taken care of." The blind old doctor hobbled over to him.

"You have a strong heart," he said. "But it can quickly fail you if you force yourself while you are ill. I do not wish to help you as a citizen of Asgard, but as a doctor, I ask you, please don't force yourself to your death."

"My heart's fine." Sora said, a little coldy. "I'm not letting you guys stall for me anymore. We're moving on." He surveyed his companions as they exchanged wary looks. This new, cold and convicted Sora unnerved them. He'd been so carefree before.. After a moment of silence, he turned away from them and grabbed his sword.

"I won't be weak." they heard him mutter.

... ... ... ... ... ...

The moon had already risen high into the night sky before Sora returned. He told no one where he had been, but he looked stronger, healthier, despite his still glazed eyes and flushed skin. There was a grim smile on his face as he placed his sword on the windowsill nearest his bed. Kratos and Raine were at the table, making preparations for the group to leave the next day, when Sora joined them. Koda scrambled happily into his lap and smiled up at everyone.

Eccah, who was sitting over on her own bed, showing Colette how to finger-knit a scarf, threw him an anxious glance. Kratos saw this look and noticed something in her face that said she knew what was going on with her red-haired friend. And whatever it was, it worried her.

Perhaps Midna knew as well, but there had been no sign of the irritating shadow dweller for days. Kratos pondered this. She had seemed rather protective of the young man, and now she'd disappeared while he was very ill. What could be important enough for her to leave now?

He must have become lost in thought, because Sora was suddenly waving his gloved hand in Kratos' face. He blinked and looked up. Raine sighed.

"Alright," she said. "Off to bed. Everyone. Now."

... ... ... ... ... ...

A tall, hooded figure made his way silently through the City of Ruins. The hood that covered his head and concealed his face fell down onto his shoulders and continued into a long cape that trailed behind him. He wore a tight-fitting beige tunic that complimented his slender frame, white trousers, and brown boots. There were long strips of navy blue fabric wound around his arms, and a sheathed dagger at his side. There was a long wooden quarterstaff in his hand, and as he walked, he blew his long, forest-green hair out of his eyes. A silver ring glinted in his lower lip, illuminated by the pale light of the moon.

He walked quickly, his long strides carrying him swiftly to the largest inn in Asgard.

_Only the best for the Chosen_.. he thought with a smirk.

The doorman at the inn suddenly and very conveniently became very interested in a nearby rockpile as the cloaked man slipped past him and he grinned as he clutched the large bag of gald-bigger than what he'd been paid to guard the inn-that was now in his hand.

... ... ... ... ... ...

There was no need for "guard dog duty" tonight. The travellers rested peacefully knowing that there was an armed man guarding the inn, even if he was loyal only because of the large amount of gald from Kratos, and the glory of the idea that he would be allowed to fight "the murderer" in the morning, with three free strikes.

It was Sora who had proposed this idea. While the others had tried to talk him out of it, he'd stood his ground.

"It's not much, but it will add to the chances that he will remain loyal to us," he had said. "With only the gald, there's still the chance that he could sell us out and just take off with the money. At least this way, he'll at least guard us til morning, 'cause he'll want the glory of fighting me for himself."

And despite their reservations, they had to admit that it was a rather good idea.

Eccah turned over onto her back and opened her eyes. Sleep was eluding her tonight. No. It wasn't a good idea. She didn't think so. Sora wasn't strong enough to fight now.

And if anything happened to Sora...

She gasped as the point of a dagger appeared in front of her eyes.

**End Chapter X**

**Strong Heart**


	12. Chapter XI Elven Assassin

**Disclaimer**: Well here we are again guys and let me say one thing. I. Am. Inspired. Yes. I have gotten a very good idea and I very much hope you like it and you will be patient with me as I take forever to update. I'll probably be writing quite a lot for a while though, as I'm going to have a bit of free time now. Goodbye math class! Hello either spare or resource class! But anyway, I'm writing at school again, so I'm going to be doing this alone. Again. Hah.. I do not own Tales of Symphonia or any of it's characters(or anything else) because they belong to Namco. Midna belongs to Nintendo. Yeah. I own Sora, Eccah, Koda, Lukas, Orin, and a mysterious cloaked man. Mine! No stealing! You can use them with my permission, however.

**Chapter XI**

_Elven Assassin_

"Go ahead, scream." a soft voice hissed in her ear. "I dare you." The blade of the dagger moved slowly to her throat. The voice laughed softly in her ear, a voice that was beautiful and terrifying. Her heart was pounding in her breast. Was she going to die tonight?

"Listen to me, little girl," the voice whispered. "Something is going to happen here tomorrow. Something bad. You don't want that...do you?" The cool steel of the blade touched her skin. She shook her head, scarcely daring to breathe. She was going to die. This was it. She was so small and weak. What chance did she have alone against this armed man...?

"N-no.. "she whimpered, her body trembling violently. She felt tears welling into the corners of her eyes.

"Good." the dagger-wielder murmured. "Because if you do what I say, it can all be avoided..." He chuckled darkly.

"W-what are you going to d-do?" she asked, her voice hardly a squeak. There was now a face in front of hers. Long green hair fell around it, long enough that a few strands tickled her face. The face looked paper white in the moonlight, and his eyes were a shining gold. No, only one eye was gold... The other was white-blue. He was looking at her with an unpleasant expression, and she noticed the silver ring in his lower lip.

"Oh it's not what _I'm_ going to do, sweet angel..." he said softly. "I would really rather avoid it all as well..." His face moved closer.

"But if you don't want countless people to die tomorrow and this city to literally become nothing _but_ the "City of Ruins", I suggest you take my word for this." Eccah gulped. "Kill the one who bears the mark of darkness." the dagger-wielder said. As he did, his green hair fell slightly to reveal a very long, pointed ear. An elf. But Eccah was paying no attention to his appearance. She cared only about his words.

"M-mark...?" she stammered. The elven man glanced over at another bed and Eccah followed his gaze. A small amount of red-brown hair was visible from under the blanket, illuminated by the moonlight that was filtering in through the window. She felt as though her heart had ripped itself out of her chest.

"The shadows can't hide him forever," the man hissed. "He shouldn't..." he broke off and stared into her eyes with an intense expression. "That boy was never supposed to exist. He must be destroyed. One way or another, it's going to happen. And so I ask you. Who shall be the one to kill him?"

Eccah stared at him in horror, her breath quickening, her heart beating even faster. She opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out. Sora mumbled something in his sleep and rolled over.

"If you will not do it," the man whispered. "Then _I_ will." He took the dagger away from her throat and his face vanished from view. The room was silent again and it was a long time before Eccah could calm down. When she did, she turned onto her side and realized that she felt exhausted. She sighed, and as she slid her arm under her pillow her hand met something cold. Her heart began to race again as she closed her hand around the handle of the knife. The voice chuckled.

"Sleep well, little angel."

**End Chapter XI**

**Elven Assassin**

A/N:WOW! That was the shortest chapter in existence! I think...well of my stories it is. Yeah...it's gonna get better I've got an exciting idea for the next chapter, so woo! Look forward to it!


	13. Chapter XII Murder

**Disclaimer**: Wow. Here I am again, updating a lot sooner than I thought I would be. I'm writing at school yet again, so _Indeffinate_ is still not around, though she said she'd hang around do to further disclaimers..haha. It's not like she can magically teleport herself here to help me write, though that would be incredibly awesome..and now that I think of it...she _should_ be able to do that..I mean she _is_ a witch after all, am I right, _Indeffinate_? That was a little inside joke there folks, sorry about that haha... But anyways, today I'm getting little Koda to help me with my disclaimer.

Koda: "Yay!"

Wavemasterkaz: "Hey Koda, you're going to help me today."

Koda: *big grin* " 'Kay!"

Wavemasterkaz: "Okay, go ahead."

Koda: "..."

Wavemasterkaz: "What's the matter?"

Koda: "What's a dis-cay-mer?"

Wavemasterkaz: "A _disclaimer_ is the part of the story where I tell the readers what I own and what I don't own."

Koda: "Oh..." *thinks* "Okey! Wavemasterkaz doesn't own Tales of Symphonia or Midna!"

Wavemasterkaz: "So who do they belong to?"

Koda: "I donno! I'm only five!"

Wavemasterkaz: "They belong to Namco and Nintendo. I'm sure you all know which goes to which by now. I do own Sora, Eccah, Koda, Lukas, Orin, and cloaked elf man. Maybe. Yes I do. Hah. Was tryin' to get you all confused."

Koda: "Hey!"

Wavemasterkaz: "?"

Koda: "He's _MY_ Darky! Not yours!"

Wavemasterkaz: "But Koda, I was the one who-"

Koda: "_MINE_!"

Wavemasterkaz: *sigh*

**Chapter XII**

_Murder_

Eccah slept badly that night. It was only a few hours from morning when she finally fell asleep, but was plagued by nightmares and she woke several times in a cold sweat, her heart pounding. By the time the sun had risen, she had only gotten about two hours' sleep.

The others, however, appeared very well rested. Lloyd stood near the table, stretching and yawning, and was soon joined by Genis and Sora. Genis rubbed at his eyes as Lloyd stretched once again.

"Aw I slept great last night!" Lloyd exclaimed. "I don't think I've slept that good in months!" Genis began to make everyone coffee.

"That's what happens when you usually sleep outside on the ground." he said. Lloyd stuck his tongue out at the back of his friend's head. Sora laughed.

Eccah sat over away from the others, fiddling with the small knife in her hands. The blade was silver, and despite its elegance, it was rather wicked looking. The blade curved slightly, and the point was razor sharp, twisting back so that the end was hook-like. The handle was made of polished oak, with elven runes carved into it. A perfect weapon for the man who had left it.

What was she to do? The man had told her that in order to prevent countless deaths and other destruction, she was to kill the one who bore the "mark of darkness". Could it really be Sora? She didn't know of any mark like that, on him... The only mark on his flesh that she knew of was the scar on his chest...

_Kill the one who bears the mark of darkness..._ His words rang in her head, but she was pulled out of her reverie as Raine approached her. She swiftly hid the knife under her pillow.

"Are you ready to leave?" she asked. Eccah looked up and nodded.

"Yes," she replied quietly. "Let's go." The knife remained under the pillow as she left.

... ... ... ... ... ...

"Are you prepared for this?" Kratos asked quietly as Sora drew his sword. The armed guard stood in front of them, and excited grin on his face. He held a crudely made spear in his hand. Sora nodded.

"Yep," he replied. "Couldn't be readier." The guard eyed the large broadsword in Sora's hand.

"Remember, murderer!" he called. "Three free strikes!" Sora shrugged and jabbed the blade of his weapon into the ground. It stood there on its own.

"We good?" he asked, holding his hands in the air. The other man grinned a rather unpleasant grin, and charged at Sora, the point of the spear aimed at the red-head's chest. Lloyd was about to run to his friend's aid, but Kratos held him back. When he looked up angrily at the older man, Kratos said,

"It was his decision. We can do nothing." Raine agreed, and silenced a protesting Genis. Sheena said nothing, but still looked distressed, while Eccah clutched onto her arm, an expression of pure terror on her face. Koda, oblivious to everything except Sora, was hopping up and down, chewing his lip.

"What's he gonna do to Darky?" he asked, his distress very evident in his voice. No one answered, but they had to look away as the point of the spear buried itself in Sora's arm. He made no sound, but his face contorted in pain. The man with the spear grinned. They saw the visions of glory in his face. Eccah buried her face in Sheena's arm, and Colette covered her mouth with her hands as the spear was pulled from his arm and the blood flowed freely from the wound. Koda screamed, but Sora smiled at him reassuringly through his pain. The spear-bearer smirked.

"You deserve this, monster!" he growled. He raised the spear again and slashed Sora's chest. Again, Sora made no sound, but bore his pain with clenched teeth and the others could do nothing to aid him. He stared his attacker down as a crowd of people began to gather, cheering for the spear-man and jeering at Sora. The third free strike that the attacker was allowed would be his strongest, they could tell this much. He was tensing his muscles, his spear lowered. He aimed the point at Sora's heart.

"Die." he snarled. He began to run forward, aiming to plunge his weapon though his victim's body. At the last second before the spear buried itself in Sora's chest, there was a blood-curdling shriek and the spear was knocked aside. The man holding the spear began to scream and the crowd around them began to panic. Kratos shifted his gaze to Sora's attacker, and couldn't contain his gasp of horror.

The man was thrashing on the ground, blood spurting from his neck, and flowing freely from other parts of his body. His scream was cut off and he was now emitting a frantic, gurgling, choking sound.

Koda was on top of the man's chest, ripping savagely at his throat with his teeth. His tiny hands were pulling at the man's arms and there was a sickening pop as the man's left arm was wrenched from its socket.

"Koda! Stop it!" Eccah screamed, her voice shaking. She pulled the little boy back by his shoulders, away from the now dead spear-man. The people around them continued to scream, running from the murderous child in Eccah's arms. Koda looked indignantly at her.

"He hurt my Darky!" he shouted, flecks of blood spraying from his lips. Sora stormed over and picked him up violently by the scruff of his neck. Sheathing his enormous sword, he glared at the little boy, who cowered away from such a hostile look.

"We need to leave." Sora said shortly. Sheena stared at him, her eyes wide in horror.

"But–" she began to protest, but was silenced by the look Sora shot her.

"Now." he said.

... ... ... ... ... ...

It was rather difficult for them to keep up with Sora as he strode away from the terrified city of Asgard, but no one said a word. Unspoken horror still gripped them and Sora's apparent rage unsettled them. The small boy who had attacked and murdered the Asgard spear-man was given a wide berth, and he sobbed quietly as Sora pulled him along very roughly by the arm. He, Eccah, and Sora spoke to no one until they had stopped for the night, and even then, they said very few words.

The crackling fire was the only sound as they sat within its light that night, Sora and his companions opposite Lloyd and his. No one dared meet each others' eyes, an several times someone opened their mouth to speak, only to think better of it and close their mouth again.

Finally, when their fire had died down to mere embers and several of the younger travelers were beginning to yawn and rub their eyes, Sora looked up, and still avoiding their eyes, said,

"I'm sorry." He stared into the remains of the fire for a moment before he continued. "We should have warned you, we should have told you what he was..." Eccah turned her head sharply, a warning look on her face, and Koda's eyes widened as he listened to what his "Darky" was saying.

"Sora..." Eccah murmured. "Be careful what you... we can't run away again..." Sora nodded, but continued.

"We only let him eat monsters before, but he was dying," he said, talking to the fire. "He can't survive on their blood, he was starving to death. It would be like one of us trying to live on water alone..."

"Sora, what are you talking about?" Lloyd asked uneasily. Several of the others shifted uncomfortably. Sora ignored him.

"When we realized that he couldn't survive on monsters..." he seemed reluctant to continue, as if he were disgusted by something. "We started letting him eat the Desians we had to kill. And if necessary, we...brought him to human ranches to feed on them. But this... I... We told him to never..." He shook his head. "We taught him to never attack anyone unless they were attacking him first, and that the only things that he was allowed to eat were what we told him was okay. Why he would–" Sora broke off, shaking his head angrily. Koda looked up, tears in his eyes.

"He was hurting you, Darky," he said, his little voice shaking. "I wanted to save you, Darky! He was hurting you!" Sora looked away from the small child and said nothing. "Darky!" Koda pleaded, tears running down his face. Sora stood up.

"I'm going to sleep." he said quietly, and strode off to where the light from the fire didn't reach. One by one, the others followed him, scattering themselves out so that they were sleeping comfortably. Kratos left the fireside when the light from the embers had faded completely.

Koda slept alone that night, curled up near the pitiful remains of the fire, shivering and trying to forget what he was, the reason his family had left him alone to be found a year ago by Darky, and what he had done to make the world regard him as a monster.

**End Chapter XII**

_Murder_


	14. Chapter XIII Lukas and Orin

**Disclaimer**: Hey all! Happy Zombie Jesus Day! As that is the day I am writing, as in putting this on paper and not typing it up. Sorry if my label of the day offends anyone, I didn't mean it to be offensive. I just like to have a humorous view of otherwise sober holidays. So...yes. Anyway, I have _Indeffinate_ here with me finally, so...yeah... Now we can write. I think. _Indeffinate_?

_Indeffinate_: "Yeah, I'm here."

Wavemasterkaz: "Woo! So. We gonna make this shidig the bomb-diggity?" *wink wink*

_Indeffinate_: "Don't wink, it's weird. And no one says shindig or bomb-diggity anymore!"

Wavemasterkaz: "Balmung does!"

_Indeffinate_: "Yeah, but he's cool." *grin*

Wavemasterkaz: "But maybe we should not make references to him anymore, because I don't think any of the other readers (besides Sadie) know who he is..."

_Indeffinate_: "He is only the awesomest guy ever! Explain to the readers! Or better yet, you guys should just go watch .hack!"

Wavemasterkaz: " "Kay, well, Balmung belongs to .hack/SIGN, which is property of... I don't really know. But he's not in this story so...yeah. Let's get on with this." *goofy grin*

_Indeffinate_: "You would 'goofily grin'! Allllright. Midna does not belong to Wavemasterkaz, she is property of Nintendo, ALSO, Tales of Symphonia does not belong to her either. It is property of Namco, thannks! Enjoy the story."

Wavemasterkaz: "And now she went over there, to the other side of the deck. So...uh... Story time."

**Chapter XIII**

_Lukas and Orin_

There was a lot of smoke. Smoke? But smoke meant fire. Where was the fire? His vision was blurred as he opened his eyes, and he coughed as the thick black smoke poured into his lungs. As his vision focussed, he noticed that the world had an odd orange glow. Fire...fire... What was happening? People were screaming again, and the sound made his head ache.

_Be quiet_... his mind begged. He moaned, but the sound was lost amid the screaming. He glared angrily at them as they ran past him. Couldn't they see how much they were hurting him? He lifted his hands to his head, then stopped. A startlingly limp person's arm was clutched in his right hand. Looking down, he saw enormous chunks had been torn out of the person's neck and face. There were teeth marks around every wound. Horrified, he let go of the human's arm, and recoiled with a gasp of terror. Had he done this?

Crying out, he stumbled away from the dead human, failing to notice the change he'd undergone. His roar echoed through the destruction, his cry of horror sounding in a voice that was not his.

_What's happening to me?_ He clutched at his head with his hands, fear making his heart beat painfully fast. His head was pounding and his vision blurred again.

And then the world went black.

... ... ... ... ... ...

Kratos was the first to rise that morning, other than Colette, who could no longer sleep. They said little to each other as they began to hide the evidence of their fire, and cleaned up the rest of their camp. It was silent for nearly an hour, when the sun was above the horizon, and Kratos heard a noise. In one motion, he had drawn his sword and launched himself in from of the Chosen. He stood at the ready, all senses alert as the unknown sound turned out to be footsteps. Lloyd had been awoken by the sound of Kratos' sword being drawn, and was now hurriedly grabbing his own swords, also positioning himself in front of Colette.

The footsteps became louder, crunching on the dirt, and kicking up a loose stone, getting closer and closer. Eccah was now awake as well, startling the others by also assuming a protective stance in front of the Chosen, holding her bladed staff forward, ready to charge. No one said a word, but stood silently as the footsteps became very audible in the silence of the early morning.

"Heeeyyy!" a voice suddenly called. As they watched, a tall, blonde man came into view among the trees that surrounded the camp. The man stopped a safe distance away and waved, a very wide grin on his face.

"Luke!" Eccah cried, dropping her weapon and rushing forward. Kratos and Lloyd lowered their swords, bewildered. The blonde man in the trees spread his arms, and caught the young girl in a tight bear hug.

"You...know him?" Lloyd asked. Eccah turned to him, beaming, still caught in a tight embrace.

"It's Lukas!" she exclaimed. "My brother who was taken away to the Human Ranch when Luin was destroyed by the Desians." Lukas nodded. Turning back to him, Eccah said,

"What happened? How did you escape? Did we free you? If so, why didn't I see you?" Lukas laughed.

"Whoa, hold on, kid," he said. "Y'know, one question at a time!" They came closer to the camp. "And...aren't ya forgetting someone else?" Eccah raised one eyebrow, and Lukas gestured behind him, in the direction he'd come from.

"We both got away," he said, as the others looked where he was pointing. "And we came lookin' for ya." A second, taller blonde man appeared where Lukas had, but unlike the first, he was not smiling.

"It's taken us quite a while to locate you," he said.

"Orin!" Eccah exclaimed, leaving Lukas to go and hug the other man. "You're safe too! How did you find us?"

"It's a bit of a long story," Lukas said, still grinning.

"_All_ of your companions should hear it." Orin said, still unsmiling.

... ... ... ... ... ...

Lukas and Orin's appearances were just as odd as their sister's was, the group decided as they sat around the campsite, regarding each other. And yet, they did not look much alike. Lukas' hair was dirty blonde, with darker flecks of brown, and it was cut very oddly indeed. His bangs were long and untidy, as was the hair on the sides of his head, whereas the top and back were cut very short, and spiked in many different directions, giving his head a windswept appearance. His skin was pale and freckled, and his cheeks were dimpled as if there were permanent dents left from grinning so often. His eyes were bright green, with gold rings around his pupils, and they sparkled as if the whole world pleased him. Under his right eye, there was an oddly shaped forest-green mark of some kind, that looked almost like a tribal brand. He had a very good natured face, and seemed like an overall very happy person. His clothes were not as outlandish as his sister's were, however. He wore a plain, beige tunic, with white leggings and brown boots. A quiver with a dozen arrows and a longbow was strapped to his back, and he carried a hunting knife at his waist.

Orin's hair was platinum blonde, appearing almost white, and was extremely untidy, as if it had a mind of its own. His bangs fell into his eyes, and the majority of his hair swept forward. The hair on the sides of his head flipped out and upward, and the back of his hair stuck up in numerous directions, before finally falling down the back of his neck. His eyes were the exact same shade of deep blue as Eccah's but he had a similar complexion to Lukas, though with considerably fewer freckles. There was a mark on his face too, a deep red mark that slightly resembled a lightning bolt, just beside his left eye. He wore a navy blue tunic, grey leggings, and brown boots, with a red scarf of some sort draped about his shoulders and flowing down over his back. He carried two rather large, one-handed swords, crisscrossed across his back, and around his neck hung a chain with a cross attached to it.

After a moment, Raine broke the silence.

"So. You two are Eccah's brothers?" Lukas and Orin nodded. "You lived in Luin, correct? Then how is it that you were not among the other captives we freed from Kvar's Human Ranch?" No one noticed how Sora's hands balled into fists at Kvar's name.

"We knew they were coming," Lukas said. Orin shot him a look that was clearly a warning, but Lukas ignored him as he continued. "We left just before the attack. We were nearly caught, and only just got away. I think they knew that they hadn't found everyone though, 'cause they had soldiers searching the surrounding woods for days. That made it really hard to get back."

"Why would you want to go back there?" Lloyd asked, raising one eyebrow. "I mean, I know it's your home and all, but..it was nothing but ruins, and you were safe, so...why?" Lukas opened his mouth to speak, but closed it as Orin replied to Lloyd's question.

"We were looking for Eccah," he said. "We were nearly away when we realized that she was not with us. Naturally, we assumed that the Desians had taken her, but there was a chance that she was still hiding somewhere in the town. And, as destroyed as it was, it would have had _some_ valuable supplies that could have aided us if it came down to attacking the Ranch." Raine regarded him for a moment.

"You say you knew that the attack was coming," she said. "How could you have known such a thing?" Lukas and Orin looked at each other, then at Eccah.

"Hey, yeah Ecc," Lukas said. "How _did _you know?" Eccah blushed, and looked at her feet.

"Ah..well," she said quietly. "Well, um.. when I heard about.. when I heard about what happened there, I-" she broke off, looking awkward, as if she was confessing to something that she didn't quite want to say. "The experiments that Sora's mother was in, I mean.. When I heard about that, I wanted to see if they were still doing that.. If.. that was what had happened to Dad, so.. I was.. spying." As she finished talking she stared at her feet. Lukas sighed and slapped himself in the forehead, and Orin shook his head, looking half amused, half disappointed.

"Oh, sis..." Lukas sighed. "When will you learn?" Eccah looked embarrassed.

"There is more." Orin said, changing the subject. "When we learned that you were travelling with the Chosen," He cast a glance at Colette as he said this. "We began to follow her progress across Sylvarant. However..." He looked around at the others, his face grim. "We found that several of the cities you've visited have been utterly destroyed." There was a collective gasp.

"D-destroyed?" Genis stammered. "You mean like what happened to Asgard?" Orin nodded.

"So you've seen it then." he said. "Yes, it is basically the same. Everything in ruins, numerous dead, and all with bite marks around their wounds. The strange thing is, however..."

"Is that whoever it is has been going your exact route, and like at Asgard, sometimes going on ahead." Lukas said. Raine and Kratos both glanced at Koda, who was dozing off in Eccah's lap. "The thing is, though, we've been asking around, and apparently there's been no one trailing you..."

"Which only leaves one other possibility." Orin said. "Chosen One," he said to Colette. "You would do well to be wary of your companions, as they may be more than they appear."

"Yeah, we... kinda got that...already.." Sora said, looking at Koda with a look that was a mixture of pity and frustration. Orin sighed, then turned to Lloyd and the others.

"So I assume you know that Koda is a vampire child?" he asked. After a moment of silence, Sheena said,

"We kind of assumed something like that..after the attack in Asgard." Lukas' eyes went wide and Orin looked alert.

"Attack?" he said sharply.

"Y-yeah," Lloyd replied. "We made a deal with a guard who thought Sora had destroyed their city before, and it involved a fight, and... well Koda kind of.. uh... ate.. the guy."

"I was protecting my Darky." the small boy piped up drowsily. Orin sighed.

"We're heading to Hima." he said softly. "I assume that's where you were headed as well?" Colette nodded.

"Yes," she said. "And from there we'll go to the Tower of Salvation. The last seal on my journey."

"We'll accompany you there," Orin said, as Lukas nodded. "But after that, I think it would be best if Koda remained with us. We'll take him back to Luin, and when your journey is over, Sora and Eccah can rejoin him."

**End Chapter XIII**

_Lukas and Orin_


	15. Chapter XIV Plot

**Disclaimer**: So I'm writing at school yet again, unlike last update, where I was writing at my grandmother's house on Easter. _Indeffinate_ isn't around again, since she's at her own school, so... I'm just going to pick someone at random to help me with the disclaimer today. Let us spin the Wheel! And the Wheel is spinning around and around! And look at the blood-filled Wheel! As the Hellish dollar flies by and I say "Kill for me Wheel! KILL FOR ME WHEEL!"

...Yeah, you'll only get that last part if you've ever heard Dane Cook's bit about the Price is Right... I'm a bit of a Dane Cook fan. But anyway, the Wheel has chosen a victim for me.

Kratos: "..."

Wavemasterkaz: "Looks like it's you, Kratitos!" *grin*

Kratos: "Please refrain from calling me that."

Wavemasterkaz: "Whatever you say, just do my disclaimer."

Kratos: "Must I?"

Wavemasterkaz: "Yes. You are the Wheel's Chosen One. You must fulfill your destiny as dictated by the Wheel."

Kratos: *sigh* "Just what I needed. Another person whose sanity is doubtful."

Wavemasterkaz: "You love me. You know you do. You HAVE to love me. I am the ALL powerful Wavemasterkaz!"

Kratos: "Counselling may be a wonderful option for you. I strongly suggest you look into it."

Wavemasterkaz: "Don't make fun of me!"

Kratos: "Why not? You make it so easy..."

Wavemasterkaz: "Just shut up and do my disclaimer."

Kratos: "You do realize that if I were to follow your exact instructions, your disclaimer would never get done... don't you?"

Wavemasterkaz: "..."

Kratos: "I didn't think so."

Wavemasterkaz: *eye twitches*

Kratos: "Your face is turning a very unpleasant colour. Are you ill?"

Wavemasterkaz: "AAAAAGGHHH! WHY THE HELL DO PEOPLE FIND IT SO EASY TO MAKE FUN OF ME AND MAKE ME LOOK LIKE AN IDIOT?" *other unintelligible yelling*

Kratos: *opens mouth to speak*

Wavemasterkaz: "DO NOT answer that question."

Kratos: *sigh*

Wavemasterkaz: "Just...do my disclaimer."

Kratos: *chuckles* "Wavemasterkaz does not own Tales of Symphonia, or any of its settings, characters and themes, as they are property of Namco. Midna belongs to Nintendo, as a part of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. Any other characters are hers." *pauses thoughtfully* "Also, she is incredibly easy to make fun of and it is rather humorous."

Wavemasterkaz: "Why you little–"

Kratos: "Farewell." *pulls out wings and flies away, still chuckling*

Wavemasterkaz: "...douche."

**Chapter XIV**

_Plot_

In the few days that it took the group to reach Hima, Lukas and Orin became just as good of friends as Eccah and Sora had to Lloyd and the others. Lukas was very likable, always cheerful and a talented scout. He liked everyone and everyone liked him, his good-natured face always grinning. He sparred with Lloyd, let Genis practice magic on him, sang cheery songs with Colette, trained with Sheena and discussed the glories of ancient ruins with Raine.

"Oh great," Genis groaned. "Another ruins maniac." Eccah laughed.

"Don't worry," she said. "He doesn't go psychotic when he sees them like she does." Raine shot them a dirty look. As for Kratos, Lukas left him alone, because that was how he knew Kratos liked to be.

Orin, however, spoke rarely, and usually walked at the back of the group, his face expressionless.

"To be honest," Lloyd said. "It's like having another Kratos around."

Sora also had become withdrawn, and often looked preoccupied. It was obvious that he was still ill, but he refused to have anyone help him or worry about him. He had also refused to have Raine heal his wounds from Asgard, until being told that the injuries would only slow him down, and by extension, the group. He then let Raine treat him.

It was early evening when they reached the Adventurer's Village, Hima, and no one said a word. There was an air of doom about them, an uneasy restlessness. Tomorrow Colette would unlock the Final Seal, and become a true angel. Tomorrow, the world would be saved.

"This is the end of our journey," Sora said. "And the beginning of a new life, for all of us, and for Sylvarant." Lukas nodded.

"Yeah," he said. "But I think Koda should stay with us from now on. Being what he is...it might not be the greatest idea for him to be there when some angels show up to bless the Chosen... He might get..er.._protective_ again."

"We will stay here for a day or so to rest," Orin agreed. "And then we will return to Luin. We've taken care of Koda before, we shall be fine." Koda didn't protest as Sora agreed to the plan.

"Sorry, Bud," he said, giving the vampire child a hug. "But...he's kind of got a point. I'll come get you from Luin as soon as I can though, okay?" Koda nodded and smiled sadly. He'd been very quiet and reserved ever since Asgard, but a bit of his prior cheerfulness sparkled in his eyes, contrasting oddly with his sad expression.

... ... ... ... ... ...

There was a grim smile on his face as he stood on the edge of town, contemplating his next move. He sighed. Hadn't he warned her? Humans couldn't be trusted to do anything, apparently.

_So I will have to do it myself_, he thought, heading silently toward the inn. He'd been following them for months, and yet she continued to disappoint him. Surely she'd known of the danger before his warning.. Why was he still living?

He chuckled. Did they honestly think that the _child_ was capable of such destruction? He _could_ be rather dangerous when he wanted to be, but to destroy an entire village and return to the camp in one night...impossible. They were fools. He paused outside of the inn, staring into one of the windows. The darkness didn't lie. a mere child could not be capable of so much devastation. This was the work of something much more.

"Tregan," a voice came from behind him. He turned to find that his shadow had developed a rather large orange eye.

"Midna," he replied. The orange eye narrowed, and she seemed to sprout out of his shadow, her shape growing more defined.

"I see you've found him," she said rather coldly. He nodded and looked back through the window. He could see them all sleeping peacefully, blissfully unaware of the fact that one of them was going to die. Wait...two were still awake. Damn! It was that blasted Kratos and the foolish Chosen. It would be difficult to get inside and kill him with them still awake.

"Ugh," he growled. "This will make things annoying. Why the hell do angels need to be awake twenty-four hours a day anyway?"

"Tregan," Midna said. "You've been following him, haven't you?" Tregan turned and regarded the shadow dweller. "I've seen what's happened to the cities, and you have too...right?" Tregan nodded.

"It is just as we have foreseen." he said gravely. "Everything has been falling into place the way we've predicted. If events continue in this pattern..."

"Kratos joining the group, the attack at Kvar's ranch, the destroyed cities, Koda's attack on the spear-man..." Midna said. "We can only hope what's supposed to happen next, won't. I...you warned Eccah about what would happen..right?" Tregan chuckled.

"Well..." he said, giving Midna an odd look.

"Tregan, you didn't... please say you didn't." she went to the window, but then breathed a sigh of relief. Sora was sprawled across the floor, still alive, and snoring loudly.

"You can't keep him alive only for your own reasons, Midna." Tregan said quietly. "He was never supposed to live. He cannot be allowed to exist."

"No!" Midna protested. "We have to find a way. A way that he can live, and this can be stopped. We can't just kill him!"

"Midna!" Tregan said sharply. "We don't have time to look for another way! The foreseen day is fast approaching, and we cannot afford for him to be alive!"

"No!" Midna said, covering her ears with her hands. "We can't... How can we kill someone like... such an innocent–"

"He is not innocent!" Tregan said, banging his fist on the wall of the inn. "He is far from innocent, Midna. Look at his history! Look at what he has done, what he will do! Our worlds are at risk as long as he is alive and you want to _save_ him? You're a fool, Midna. A fool! You may have your reasons, but they do not outweigh the importance of the fate of the world. He _must_ die."

"But–"

"Midna," Tregan said quietly. "I warned her about what would happen if she did not kill him, but she kept him alive. On the day I warned her about, Asgard was attacked. Again. What other option do you see? She will not do it, so I have to."

"Please. Just give me a day. I think I know..." Midna said. "Tregan, I think I can save him, as well as stop him." Tregan was silent for a moment, then sighed.

"You have twenty-four hours, Midna." he said. "If you cannot save him in twenty-four hours, I _will_ kill him."

They slunk away into the shadows as Kratos opened the door.

**End Chapter XIV**

_Plot_


	16. Chapter XV Chain of Alarming Events

**Disclaimer**: Heyo! I'm back again, updating very quickly, I think. I started writing this at work last night, but only got as far as the first sentence of my disclaimer before my break was over, so I'll finish it now. I'm at school again, so _Indeffinate_ is yet again, not here. Shall I choose another participant at random? Sure. Why not? Spin, my Wheel of Destiny! Spin, I say! Spin! *Wheel is spinning* Alrighty, so who do we have here today?

Kratos: "...not again.."

Wavemasterkaz: "Hey! You were already here!"

Kratos: "Unfortunately." *looks thoughtful* "Have you looked into counseling yet?"

Wavemasterkaz: "Go away."

Kratos: "Heh." *sidles off-screen*

Wavemasterkaz: "Okay. So...apparently the Wheel likes Kratos. Let's just...spin again."

Wheel: *spins*

Kratos: "..."

Wavemasterkaz: "Kratos! Get out of here!"

Kratos: "Not my fault. Fix the damn wheel." *goes off-screen again*

Wavemasterkaz: "Ugh. Okay, Wheel. Choose someone _besides_ Kratos!"

Wheel: *spins*

Tregan: "Uhm...hm..."

Wavemasterkaz: "Hiya Tregan! You're doing my disclaimer today!"

Tregan: "I don't have time."

Wavemasterkaz: "Yes you do. The story is currently paused because I'm not telling it yet, so your time isn't running out. Or...something like that."

Tregan: "Listen, kid..."

Wavemasterkaz: "Not kid. The ALL powerful Wavemasterkaz."

Tregan: *sigh* "Fine, fine. I'll do your disclaimer."

Wavemasterkaz: *big grin*

Tregan: "Wavemasterkaz does not own Tales of Symphonia or any of its characters, themes, or places. It's property of Namco. She does not own Midna either, because Midna belongs to Nintendo as a part of Twilight Princess. Wavemasterkaz _ does _however, own Sora, Eccah, Koda, Lukas, Orin and myself. If I am forgetting anyone, I apologize."

Wavemasterkaz: "Thank you, Tregan."

Tregan: "Goodbye."

**Chapter XV**

_A Chain of Rather Alarming Events_

Noishe tilted his head and looked quizzical as Kratos stood in front of him. Kratos sighed. He knew that Noishe was very intelligent, but he still felt very odd talking to an animal.

"Take care of Lloyd for me," he said. Before he could continue, he was cut off by Lloyd's cry of,

"Kratos look out!" He drew his sword swiftly and swung at the blue blur in the corner of his vision. A grunt of pain sounded out and he turned to see Yuan clutching at his chest where Kratos had slashed him.

"You-" he gasped before fading away into thin air.

"Kratos!" Lloyd called, as Kratos sheathed his sword. "Are you okay? Who _was_ that?"

"An assassin, I would assume." Kratos replied. "But I gave him a wound he'll not soon forget."

... ... ... ... ... ...

_Kratos_.

Kratos looked up as his name was said. Everyone but Lloyd and the Chosen was asleep, but they were outside talking amongst themselves.

_Kratos_.

Again, a voice called his name. It sounded muffled, as if the person speaking was not in the room. Perhaps it was Lloyd or Colette. He ought to check, to see if everything was alright. He stood up, just as Sora's shadow lengthened, and Midna materialized out of it. She seemed to have regained most of her usual appearance. Only one eye was visible now, as the crown-like accessory she wore was back in place, covering one eye, and there was a fiery sheen to her hair, if that's what it was. Blue-green patterns glowed on her body, and she seemed more solidified.

"Midna," Kratos greeted her with a nod. She nodded as well.

"Kratos, I need to talk to you." she said, none of her usual humor in her voice. She sounded worried, Kratos noted.

"I'm listening," he replied. Midna sighed, and looked at the sleeping travelers.

"I'd rather talk where there's no chance of being overheard." she said. "No one else in the village will be up for a few hours. So..meet me up where that man was selling dragon rides, okay?" Kratos nodded and she sank back into the shadows. He turned and exited the inn.

"Hey..Kratos, where are you going?" Lloyd asked as Kratos strode past him.

"I have some last minute preparations to take care of," Kratos replied. "I will meet you by the dragon man when it is time to leave."

"Uh...okay," Lloyd said, looking a bit confused. "See you later then, I guess." Kratos nodded and continued to his meeting place. Midna materialized out of the shadows once more as he arrived, and he acknowledged her by inclining his head.

"What is it?" he asked. She settled herself on a nearby rock that was out of the direct path of sunlight, and sighed.

"It's about Sora," she said, avoiding his eyes. Kratos chuckled.

"I should have guessed," he said. Midna scowled at him.

"Kratos, this is serious." she said. "I mean, do you know what he _is_?" Kratos blinked, a bit surprised. What did she mean?

"I'm afraid I do not," he admitted, and tilted his head a bit quizzically. Midna began to avoid his eyes again.

"He's..." she said uncertainly. "Well, he told you about Kvar's experiments with genetics, right?" When Kratos confirmed that he had, Midna continued. "They didn't really affect anyone else because they were older, already grown up. Their genetic make-up was more..._solidified_. But since he was in his mother's womb when she was injected, it affected _him_ instead of her. So..." she paused. "I was spying on Yggdrasill, and I found out-"

"Midna!" another voice cut her off. Turning, Kratos saw a tall, green haired man in an Elvin tunic, with a silver ring through his lower lip.

"Tregan?" she said, sounding alarmed and confused. The green haired man looked behind him, and then back at Midna, a slightly frightened expression on his face.

"We have to go. Now." he said.

"But-" Midna protested.

"We've got a complication." he insisted. "Come on! Now!"

"Tregan, I don't-"

"Midna!" He leapt forward and grabbed her, hurdling them both over the edge of the cliff. Kratos gasped and hurried to the edge, only to see them vanish into a cloud of black and purple smoke.

A moment later, the sound of a scream met his ears.

... ... ... ... ... ...

"Tregan!" Midna cried. "What the hell are you doing?" She struggled free of his grip and stared angrily at him as he leaned against the pillar, struggling to catch his breath. "And why did you bring me to the Tower of Salvation of all places?"

"It didn't work," he muttered, staring away from her. Midna growled at him, but he merely repeated, "It didn't work."

"What didn't work?" she demanded. "Your brain? That much was obvious!" Tregan didn't even blink. "Tregan! Answer me!" Tregan finally looked up and met her gaze with hollow-looking eyes.

"The poison," he said. "It didn't work." Midna gaped at him in horror.

"You _poisoned_ him?" she shouted. "Tregan! What the hell is _wrong_ with you? What happened to "twenty-four hours"?" Tregan shook his head.

"It was before we made the deal," he said. "When I first started following him, I started slipping poison into his food. Koda can be very co-operative when he thinks he's helping his 'Darky'."

"Is that why he was sick?" Midna demanded. "Because you were tricking his foster son into trying _kill_ him?"

"No," Tregan replied. "He seemed to be immune to it. It only accelerated his condition."

"Wait," Midna said. "Then that means..."

"That's why we had to leave," Tregan said. "We cannot afford to be held responsible for the death of the Chosen."

... ... ... ... ... ...

"Kratos!" He heard his name called as he raced back toward the main part of the village. "Kratos, where are you? Kratos!" As he dashed around the corner of the path, he ran full on into Sheena.

"Kratos!" she gasped, trying to catch her breath. He looked behind her, where a crowd of worried-looking people was gathered in front of the inn, muttering to each other.

"What is it?" he asked, a slight feeling of panic rising inside him. No. What if something had happened? What if he failed now? No, he couldn't. Not so close. And...no, he couldn't possibly feel..._affection_ for these people. Could he?

"Sora, he just-" Sheena stammered. "He-ugh, just come see!" They hurried to the inn, pushing through the crowd of people, earning a few dirty looks along the way. Kratos pushed open the door and saw Raine, Genis, Colette, Lukas, Orin and Koda all backed against one wall.

"Kratos!" Raine exclaimed, a look of relief on her face. "You're the strongest, so please see if you-" She was cut off by a loud snarl and a whimper of fear. He turned his attention to the other side of the room where Sora was crouched against the wall opposite the others, his teeth bared, and his arm wrapped tightly around Eccah's neck. He was staring at Kratos with wild eyes, a low growling in his throat, his body almost vibrating.

"What-" Kratos began, but as he spoke, Sora snarled loudly cutting him off. The sound sent shivers down his spine; no human could make that noise. It was so feral, and animalistic. He tightened his grip on Eccah's neck, and she struggled to get free, earning another loud growl. Sora lowered his head and looked at Kratos from under his hair. There were two oddly shaped, coal black marks on his left cheek, just under his eye, that made him look rather demonic.

"Sora, let her go!" Lloyd said sharply. He was standing in the centre of the room, his swords drawn. He must have been trying to reason with him before Kratos arrived and appeared to be getting frustrated. Sora snarled again and backed up, if possible, even further. Lukas and Orin looked greatly distressed, and Koda was practically hyperventilating. The tension in the room was so thick it felt almost solid. "Sora!" Lloyd barked. Sora growled, eyeing the blades in his friend's hands, still holding onto Eccah, who was shaking with terror. If he tightened his grip again he could very well choke her to death.

"Sora, let Eccah go." Kratos said calmly. Sora snarled again, looking distressed, and then, after a moment of hesitation, released his grip on his blonde friend. There was a collective sigh of relief. Eccah scrambled over to her brothers, who hugged her tightly, eyeing Sora with distrust in their eyes. Sora growled, looking sulky as he eyed his companions. "Sora." Kratos said, and the red-head turned his attention to him. "Calm down, and tell us what's wrong." Sora growled, still crouched, and still staring at Kratos, his eyes wild. They were slowly fading from blue to a dark purple. "Sora." Kratos said firmly, as Sora edged toward the open window near him. "What are you doing?" The red-head growled again, though this time he sounded distressed, beginning to pace back and forth. This looked rather odd, as he was still crouched. It was rather disturbing; his actions were so like a trapped animal's..

"Sora, would you stop that?" Sheena said. "You're kind of freaking me out!"

"Kind of?" Genis said incredulously. "I was past freaked out a long time ago!" Sora growled again, looking at Kratos. His expression was almost...pleading?

"Sit down, Sora," Kratos sighed. To the astonishment of everyone in the room, Sora sat. It was still very animal-like, but he seemed calmer, and was looking at Kratos expectantly.

"He...listened to you." Lloyd said in amazement. Sora blinked at him, then looked back to Kratos.

"Try telling him to stop acting like such a psycho!" Sheena suggested. Kratos sighed, then turned his attention back to Sora.

"Let's try an experiment," he said. "Sora, stand up." Sora stood, slightly hunched over, but more human-like than his other actions. "Now Lloyd, tell him to sit down."

"Uh..okay," Lloyd said. "Sit down, Sora." Sora growled at him.

"Sit down, Sora." Kratos said. Sora sat. "Great." Kratos muttered sarcastically. "Just what I needed. A pet."

**End Chapter XV**

_A Chain of Rather Alarming Events_


	17. Chapter XVI Dragon Ride

**Disclaimer**: Hey, so yeah, I'm back.. _DarthSader_ was supposed to do this disclaimer with me but I'm at school and she doesn't go to my school either, so..yeah.._Indeffinate_ isn't really around either. So. They can wait for the next disclaimer. Oh yeah, seeing as someone has questioned it, _Indeffinate_ is Burgandy. Someone asked why she hadn't hung around after saying she would but yeah, that's her username, so.. Go give her love. Though I don't think she has anything posted as of yet. So anyway, to pick my next disclaimer victim. Let us spin the Wheel of Destiny. *Wheel spins* Who do we have this time? It had better not be Kratos.

Raine: "Hm. Now this is odd."

Wavemasterkaz: "What is?"

Raine: "Only a moment ago I was studying a most fascinating scripture that I found at the Balacruf Mausoleum."

Wavemasterkaz: "Yes, but now you're here to do my disclaimer. The Wheel has chosen you. It is your destiny."

Raine: "So a _wheel_ is now deciding my fate..how sad."

Wavemasterkaz: "It's not just a wheel, it's the Wheel of _Destiny_."

Raine: "Hm..."

Wavemasterkaz: "So are you going to do this thing or not?"

Raine: "I am, but first I must point out that you seem to have some sort of parasite attached to you."

Wavemasterkaz: O_O "Where?"

Raine: "Right there, it's appendages have fixed themselves in your ears. How did you not notice?"

Wavemasterkaz: "...? Oh, wait. Those are just my headphones."

Raine: "Headphones?"

Wavemasterkaz: "Yeah, they're connected to my iPod." *holds up iPod*

Raine: "What is this technology? It's fantastic!"

Wavemasterkaz: "Ow! Hey! Don't just yank 'em out of my ears like that!"

Raine: "It's wondrous! But...what does it do? What is its function? I must dissect it and find out!"

Wavemasterkaz: "What? Hey! No way, I paid a lot of money for that!"

Raine: "Really? You mean you can purchase these?"

Wavemasterkaz: "Yeah, they're for playing music."

Raine: "It doesn't look much like a musical instrument."

Wavemasterkaz: *sigh* "No, here. Just put these in your ears."

Raine: "I don't see where you're going with this."

Wavemasterkaz: *puts earbuds into Raine's ears*

Raine: "My! I hear music! This is fantastic!"

Wavemasterkaz: "Yeah, that's why I don't want you dissecting it..."

Raine: "This music is very different from what I'm used to... What is this song called?"

Wavemasterkaz: "It's called Tentative by System of a Down."

Raine: "That's an odd song title.. 'Tentative by System of a Down.'"

Wavemasterkaz: "Uh, no. The band who plays it is called System of a Down. The song is just called Tentative."

Raine: "Oh. That makes sense."

Wavemasterkaz: "Well I can see we're not getting anywhere with this, so I'm not even gonna bother. You know what belongs to who by now."

**Chapter XVI**

_Dragon Ride_

There was an awkward silence as the group traversed the rocky path to the dragon seller, with everyone casting anxious glances at Sora, who was now trotting sulkily at Kratos' side. He was walking just as he always did, but his face still showed that he was not entirely back to normal. There was still an air of insanity about him, but his eyes were not so wild, and Kratos had noticed that they were gradually changing back to blue.

"Things just keep getting weirder and weirder on this journey," Sheena sighed. The others heartily agreed. Kratos sighed in frustration. Today was the day he would complete his assignment, and there was a deranged boy with purple eyes following him around like a puppy.

_This is _just_ what I needed_... he thought sarcastically. He glanced beside him and saw Sora staring at him expectantly. He was like a dog waiting for his master's command.

"Please stop staring at me like that," Kratos grumbled. Sora looked away. Kratos sighed again. This was not turning out to be his day. What had happened to Midna? If she were around, he could just stick Sora with her. Surely she could keep the insane boy out of trouble. As they rounded the corner of the path, a loud snarl escaped from Sora's lips, and he stopped in his tracks.

"What's his problem?" Lloyd asked warily. He looked over at his friend, who was still growling, standing rooted to his spot. "Come on, Sora. Let's go." He went over and pulled Sora's arm, but the red-head resisted. Lloyd protested but Sora refused to move. "Kratos, do something!" Lloyd exclaimed.

"Why am I the one who has to do something?" Kratos asked wearily.

"Because you're the only one he listens to!" Lloyd said. Kratos sighed with exasperation, then said,

"Sora, come on." Sora looked at him indignantly, but still seemed hesitant to move. He eyed the dragons in front of them and backed up again.

"It seems he's afraid of the dragons," Raine said. "We'll probably have a hard time getting him on one."

"Should we just leave him here?" Genis asked, shrugging. Sora growled again and then ran over to where Colette was approaching a dragon. He positioned himself in front of her and with a look over his shoulder, growled at the dragon.

"Well, at the very least he's still doing his duty as Colette's guardian," Raine chuckled. Kratos strode over to where Sora sat and put his hand on the boy's shoulder.

"Move, Sora." he said. The boy growled at him, but obediently moved. Offering Colette his hand, he lifted her up onto the first of the dragons. Sora made a noise of protest, but fell silent at a look from Kratos. "We shall go on ahead." Kratos told them. Turning to Sora, he said with a sigh, "Sora, just.. listen to what they tell you to do." Sora growled, and sat on the ground, sulking.

As they suspected, getting Sora to ride a dragon proved to be a challenge. After Lloyd consented to ride with him, he'd had to pull the red-headed boy up by the hood on his vest, with Raine, Genis and Sheena pushing him up. He now clutched onto Lloyd in terror, and Lloyd thought breathlessly that if Sora squeezed him any harder, he'd suffocate. About halfway through the flight, however, he felt Sora's grip loosen and a confused sounding groan came from behind him.

"Whoa." Sora said. "Uh, eheh.. hey, uh..Lloyd? W-why are we on a dragon?"

... ... ... ... ... ...

Sora looked around curiously as he and Lloyd landed their dragon. Hopping down swiftly, he searched the area around them.

"Hey!" he said. "I thought you said that Colette went on ahead with Kratos?" Lloyd looked thoughtful.

"Hey yeah," he said. "Where _are_ they?" Sora lifted his head and took a deep breath before drawing his sword.

"Something's not right," he said. "We've got to go find them, I've got a bad feeling." Lloyd was about to reply, but was cut off by the roar of another dragon. Turning, they saw Raine and Genis' dragon swooping toward them, closely followed by Sheena and Eccah's.

"Lloyd!" Eccah cried as they came within earshot. "Lloyd, something's wrong!" As soon as their dragon was close enough, she leapt off its back and landed neatly in front of them. Gasping, she said,

'Something's not right! Colette told me that she would wait for us here because she wanted us to be there when she unlocks the final seal, but she's not here! And... I found out something about Kratos, he–" she was cut off by Sora's growl. When they looked, they saw that his eyes were wild again.

"We go." he said, then turned and rant through the door into the Tower of Salvation.

... ... ... ... ... ...

_Kratos, what are you doing?_

Kratos sighed as he tried to ignore the irritating voice in his head. Just when he thought she couldn't get any more annoying, she'd found a way to speak to his thoughts. Simply wonderful. But to tell the truth, he couldn't stop himself from thinking about what she was saying. What_ was_ he doing...? This was his assignment, but did he really want to go through with it..? He hadn't really liked many of Yggdrasill's ideals for many years, but he'd gone along with them because he'd had nowhere else to go, nowhere to turn. But now... could he do this to them.. Could he do this to Lloyd, and the ones Lloyd loved..? If he did...what kind of father would he be...?

_So... you've finally accepted it? Heehee! I knew you would!_ Kratos sighed.

_'Go away, Midna,'_ he thought. Her face appeared in his mind's eye, a mocking expression on her face. She appeared to be laughing , but he couldn't hear her. There was another voice instead and as he stood there, her face morphed into Lloyd's.

_"Why are you doing this, Dad?" _the Lloyd in his head demanded. _"How could you hurt us like this?"_ Lloyd then turned into Sora, who stared at him with eyes that were wild, turning from dark purple, to bright crimson. He grinned with bloodstained teeth, and his face became Colette's. She looked lifeless and empty, like a puppet with no master. Kratos' heart skipped a beat as the face then became Anna's.

_"Kratos.. How could you do this to them?"_ Kratos said nothing, only stood staring, his heart and head pounding. Anna's face faded away and then Midna's orange eye was staring at him.

_"So... what's it going to be?"_ she asked him. Kratos closed his eyes, his heart still pounding.

"I'm sorry." he whispered. In the distance, he heard a blood-curdling snarl, and Lloyd shouting.

_"As you wish,"_ Midna said, and she disappeared into the darkness.

**End Chapter XVI**

_Dragon Ride_


	18. Chapter XVII Son

**Disclaimer**: Alrighty, so _DarthSader_ is finally around, so we's gonna do my disclaimer todays. :)

_DarthSader_: "Alrighty let's do this. Hello everyone."

Wavemasterkaz: "And just listen to that applause! They love ya Sadie, they really do! The crowd is going wild, ladies and gentlemen!"

_DarthSader_: "Oh I'm feeling the love. But anyways, enough of me 'cause this isn't about me ...well, for now, haha!"

Wavemasterkaz: "Alrighty then! Sadie is feeling the love! Should we spin the wheel so we can torture someone? Or should we do something COMPLETELY DIFFERENT! Duh Duh DUH!"

_DarthSader_: "Hmmmmm... I don't know, Meemis, this is a hard one. Sooooo... I think we should do something completely different!"

Wavemasterkaz: "Ah, but you are forgetting, I am not Meemis here. Here I am the ALL powerful Wavemasterkaz." *Goofy grin* "But yessss.. something different sounds lovely."

_DarthSader_: "The weak and powerless Wavemasterkaz." :O! "Tis the Meemis. Heehee but so she says, ALL powerful Wavemasterkaz. She wishes she could own Tales of Symphonia and Twilight Princess, but she does not, I repeat, DOES NOT!" *goofy face* "But she does own everyone else."

Wavemasterkaz: "Bah! Again with the making fun of me!" *pouts*

_DarthSader:_ "But it's so fun!" *smile* "You know we all love you, and it's all fun and games."

Wavemasterkaz: "PFFTTHHPTH! So...what shall we do next?"

_DarthSader_: "Haha, let's start this chapter! I bet these guys are desperate to read! I know I am!"

Wavemasterkaz: "Sounds good to me!"

Anonymous Voice From Nowhere: "If you'd like Wavemasterkaz and _DarthSader_ to start the chapter, text TOSDD 1. If you'd like the Wheel of Destiny to bring Kratos out, text TOSDD 2. If you'd like Wavemasterkaz to be hit by a giant flaming asteroid, text TOSDD 3. RESPOND NOW!" *insert jeopardy theme here*

_DarthSader_: "TOSDD 3. :O "

Wavemasterkaz: "WHAT?"

Anonymous Voice From Nowhere: "Time's up!" *Giant flaming asteroid falls from sky*

Wavemasterkaz: O_O "OH SHIT!" *runs away*

_DarthSader_: "Well guys, I think I'll be doing the chapter from now on... unless Wavemasterkaz lives. :O"

Wavemasterkaz: *Waves arm feebly from under asteroid* "I'm still alive!" *Voice sounding muffled*

_DarthSader_: "Well then I guess I must get this asteroid off of her...Hmmm..." *Gets everyone to help her. Well...tries.*

Kratos: "I'm not helping."

_DarthSader_: "Well jeez, do I have to do everything around here?"

Wavemasterkaz: "I'm used to it!"

Kratos: *sighs*

_DarthSader_: "Oh boy well, let's start this, shall we, Wavemasterkaz, AKA Meemis?"

Wavemasterkaz: *still under asteroid, gives thumbsup* "Kay!"

**Chapter XVII**

_Son_

"So...despite his acceptance of fatherhood, Kratos has decided to betray them," Tregan murmured. "How interesting, and yet...inconvenient." Midna said nothing, and Tregan turned to her. "I was hoping that we could use him to destroy Cruxis' from the inside, but this is a complication that cannot be helped, I suppose. As for Sora..."

"You can't kill him," Midna said. "Not only are you stopping me from using my twenty-four hours to save him, you can't deny that he could be useful."

"You cannot keep him alive only for your own selfish reasons, Midna!" Tregan said sharply. "We've discussed this already... How you feel matters not when it comes to the fate of the worlds, and you know that. Sora is dangerous. Yggdrasill can turn him against us without even lifting a finger, and to have him travelling with the Chosen... It's a miracle she's even still alive." He sighed and began to walk away but Midna was suddenly in front of him again.

"Tregan! Think about it!" she said. "Think about how protective Kratos is of Lloyd, and he's only _just_ accepted him as his son! If you let me go along with my former plan, I–"

"Midna," Tregan said wearily. "Do you honestly think you can actually convince Kratos that he has a second son? In what world do you believe that would actually _work_?"

"If he believed us," Midna said eagerly. "If he believed us, his parental instincts wouldn't let him kill _both_ of his sons, would it? He would _have_ to betray Cruxis, or suffer another Anna incident."

"Midna.." Tregan sighed. "You know that won't work..." Midna puffed out her chest indignantly.

"Why not?" she demanded. "Sora looks enough like him, doesn't he? I made him all curious before, let me try this!" Tregan sighed again.

"Midna," he said. "Why are you so concerned about this? How could the outcome of this possibly affect you?"

"This can work." Midna said, ignoring him. "I know it can, just let me try."

"Fine." Tregan relented. "But this your _last_ chance. If you fail, Sora _will_ die, and if you get in my way I will kill you as well."

... ... ... ... ... ...

"Kratos?" Lloyd said incredulously as the tall auburn haired man appeared in front of them. "Where's Colette?" Kratos sighed. As he pulled out his angel wings, he looked into his son's eyes. His chest constricted when he saw the shock and betrayal there. So they must have figured out the truth about Cruxis. Though he couldn't see Lloyd or Sora figuring it out, it was possible that Raine or Genis may have clued in...

"Kratos." another voice spoke his name. Turning his attention to the source, his eyes fell upon a tall, blue-haired half-elf. Yuan. Of course. He must have intercepted them at the foot of the tower and gotten them through all of the traps. The traitor.. And yet, Kratos felt hypocritical for thinking of the half-elf so.. Wasn't he, himself a traitor as well?

"Kratos, what are you doing?" Genis demanded. Kratos drew his sword, ignoring what his heart was telling him.

"He is preventing you from getting to the Chosen, it seems," Yuan said, an odd expression on his face. Kratos glared at him, though only his eyes showed his anger. His face was still the unbreakable stony mask he always wore.

"I am one of the four Seraphim that rule over Cruxis," he said. His chest tightened again as he saw the realization of his betrayal appear on their faces. Why did it hurt him so to hurt them? He couldn't care about them, anyone, not after...

... ... ... ... ... ...

"They're here, Milord." the faceless angel told him, before warping back to Derris-Kharlan via the nearby portal. Excellent. Yggdrasill grinned, twirling a strand of his long, golden hair between his fingers.

"Let's make things a little more..._interesting_, shall we?" he murmured to himself. "But who to have him slaughter first?"

... ... ... ... ... ...

As Lloyd drew his swords to face off against the traitor, Kratos, he was startled by the most blood-thirsty snarl he'd heard yet. Turning, he saw Sora crouched behind them, his teeth bared and his eyes wild once more. They watched as his eyes darted from one face to another.

Kratos took one step forward, and Lloyd turned his attention back their betrayer. They stood eyeing each other, and as they charged toward each other, weapons raised, the silence of the cool air was shattered by Raine's shrill scream. Lloyd threw Kratos backward, and looked to see Raine laying on the ground with Sora on her chest, his teeth bared in her face. A faint voice echoed from the heavens. Kratos recognized it to be Yggdrasill's.

"Who to slaughter first?" it said. "The healer?" Sora leapt from Raine to Genis, knocking him off his feet as well. "The magic user?" He then leapt at Sheena. "The assassin? Hmm..." Sora's wild eyes turned to Eccah, who began to fearfully back away. "How about you, little failure?" But as Sora began to advance toward her, he stopped suddenly and his eyes fell on Lloyd.

"No," the voice said. "This one." The wild-eyed boy hurled himself at his brown-haired friend, but before he could attack, Kratos caught him in the chest, flinging him back with the flat of his sword. Sora landed heavily ten feet away, but quickly heaved himself to his feet and snarled with rage.

"Why Kratos," another voice said mockingly, echoing from both around them, and from Sora himself. "You would kill your own _son_ to defend this _boy_?" There was a collective gasp and all eyes turned to the Seraphim of Cruxis. Kratos stared at Sora, his face expressionless, as if he were completely unaffected by this news.

"C'mon, Dad," Sora said, in the dual voice. "Were you really gonna kill me?" Kratos laughed.

"You're not my son, Sora," he said darkly. "As much as Midna is determined to make me believe. I know of her plan."

"Dad!" Sora said, his face falling. "C-c'mon, dontcha believe me? I... I thought you knew too!" Kratos walked over to him, and to the astonishment of everyone, plunged his hand deep into Sora's chest. Sora appeared shocked and as Kratos withdrew his hand, collapsed onto the ground. Ignoring this, Kratos held out his hand, and gripped by the scruff of its neck, was a small, struggling, shadowy creature. It wore a helmet-like accessory on its head which covered one of its eyes, and its black and grey body was covered in glowing blue-green symbols. Its hair was a glowing, flowing red-orange.

"Aah!" it shrieked, in a high, female voice. "Kratos! Lemme go! Ah!" Kratos held her tightly, and she continued to struggle. In the background, Sora rose to his feet, growling.

"What do you want from me now?" Kratos snapped. "What foolish plans have you incorporated me into now?"

"Kratos! You–you can't kill him!" she cried. "He's your _son_!" Kratos snorted.

"No," he said coldly. "He's not. I don't have a son." With this, he dropped her on the ground, and disappeared into the darkness. It was silent, except for Sora, who still stood growling behind them.

**End Chapter XVII**

_Son_


	19. Chapter XVIII Yggdrasill

**Disclaimer:** Wow.. It's been a long time since I've updated, but believe me! I've had good reasons! I've just been so busy with everything that's been going on, what with moving, and being in Vancouver for the summer, and all of the stupid drama, and a lot of my friends moving away for school.. *sniff* Everybody's leavin me :(

Anyyyway...school has been back in now and while going through all of my old documents I came across the chapters for this, and I became inspired to write again. So.. Here's the newest chapter. Enjoy :) But first, here I am with _DarthSader_, who, due to email complications cannot log into her account so has resorted to using her very old account, _Cytea_.

Wavemasterkaz: *starts dancing randomly and singing*

_Cytea_: "Stooppp!"

Wavemasterkaz: :"Nuu."

_Cytea_: "Well if you'd stop singing and talking to other people (on msn), I think we should do this."

Wavemasterkaz: " 'Kay." *headbangs to Pretty Fly for a White Guy*

_Cytea_: "Well Meemis, I don't know what you're doing so we should start this."

Wavemasterkaz: "I AM NOT MEEMIS!" *insert random angry faces here* "! ^*$E^&"^*%*#&*$&#&(#^*$^$#^*$^$*&#^$&$^#*!"

_Cytea_: "_Really._ Well then."

Wavemasterkaz: "Yup. So we good?"

_Cytea_: "Well of_ course_ we're good."

Wavemasterkaz: "Okay. So.. what should we do for this disclaimer?"

_Cytea_: "Meemi- I mean _Wavemasterkaz.._ you should STOP dancing like Kratos would if he was drunk!"

Wavemasterkaz: "But I wasn't! ...or _was_ I? Duh duh DUH!" :O

_Cytea_ "Well, you were, and I bet now he's probably going to want to kill you."

Wavemasterkaz: O_O "Angry Kratos be one scary shithead. I mean dude."

Kratos: *death glare*

Wavemasterkaz: "When did _you_ get here? Go away!"

Kratos: *goes away*

_Cytea_: "Well that was easy, making him go away.. kind of odd though."

Wavemasterkaz: "He listens to me just cause I'm _that_ awesome."

_Cytea:_ "Suuure he does. You just go on thinking that. That's what he _wants_ you to think."

Wavemasterkaz: "Kay. So.. we gonna decide what we're doing before this gets too long? Haha."

_Cytea_: "Haha. Well of course."

Wavemasterkaz: "Then let's decide!"

_Cytea:_ "We should get someone drunk."

Wavemasterkaz: "Hm.. but who?"

_Cytea_: "Let's do Sora."

Wavemasterkaz: "My thoughts exactly!" *brings out Sora*

Sora: *still growling*

*Wavemasterkaz and _Cytea_ now proceed to force alcohol down Sora's throat and don't stop until he's hiccoughing and can't even stand up*

Sora: "Waaauuurghhhhhhh" *drunken noises.. falls over and begins chewing on own foot*

Wavemasterkaz: "Heh. Lawl."

_Cytea_: "Haha, oh boy. I think we're going to get it for this afterwards."

Wavemasterkaz: "Haha oh probably but.. I can smite him if I want. He doesn't have that power over us." *wink*

Sora: *is drooling as he stands up and tackles Wavemasterkaz*

Wavemasterkaz: "AGHHH WTF!"

_Cytea_: "Haha. Told you something would happen!"

Wavemasterkaz: *screams and tries to run away as Sora drunkenly humps her leg* "OH SWEET MOTHER OF CRACKERS! GET OFF OF ME YOU HORNY WASTECASE!"

_Cytea_: "Man. This would be an _awesome_ show if I only had some popcorn.."

Wavemasterkaz: "Don't just stand there! HELP ME!"

Sora: *continues to hump drunkenly*

Wavemasterkaz: *flails arms* "I'M BEING RAAAAPPPPPPEEEEDDD! OH GOD SOMEBODY HELP ME! I'M BEING HUMPED BY A DRUNK MORON!"

_Cytea_: "You know, no ones going to help you after what you've done to them. They're going to enjoy this way too much."

Wavemasterkaz: "How could they enjoy it? It's so f**king disturbing!"

*By now all of the characters have gathered around and are watching with mixed expressions, some disturbed and revolted, some finding it funny and some just bored with the incident*

Wavemasterkaz: "Don't just stand there you rat bastards! HELP ME!"

_Cytea_: "Now Meemis. That's no way to talk to your characters. They'll never listen to you then."

Wavemasterkaz: "Well if no one's going to help me, can we at least get on with this?" *is still being violently humped*

_Cytea_: "Well then. I think we should get this done. The Not Great and Powerful Wavemasterkaz (cause she's not right now) does not own Tales of Symphonia or Midna. I think you know who's they are by now."

Wavemasterkaz: "Awesome."

_Cytea_: "Why are you saying awesome with what's going on with you right now? Anyways I'm sure these people want to read the story and not you needing help 'cause you're being raped."

Sora: *stops humping Wavemasterkaz and instead attacks _Cytea_*

_Cytea_: *now the one being angry humped by a drunk deranged guy* "WAAAUUUGHHH!

**Chapter XVIII**

_Yggdrasill_

No one said a word as they watched the man whom they'd believed to be their friend disappear into the darkness and for what felt like ages they seemed unable to move. The shock over Kratos' betrayal was setting in and as it did, every one of them was feeling the same emotion. Hurt. Every one but Sora. The low growl that had risen in his throat did not die down and while the others stood motionless, he had moved over to where Midna was shivering in the bright daylight and looked at her curiously.

"Sora.." she murmured, laying one of her tiny hands on his cheek. He blinked at her, tilting his head slightly, still emitting a low growl. "I'm so sorry Sora.. It failed.. I thought for sure it would work and I could save you..." She turned away from him, and covered her face with her tiny hands. Seeming to recover from the shock, Raine turned her attentions to the shadowy being on the ground.

"You know Sora and Kratos." she said quietly. "They are each on opposing sides but...whose side are _you_ on?" Midna looked at the white-haired half-elf with her large orange eye and said,

"I'm not on either." Before Raine could question any further, they were cut off by a loud cry from Lloyd.

"Dammit!" he shouted. "How could he.. how could that bastard betray us like that? He was our friend!" He pounded his fist on the wall next to him. "Dammit!"

"Or maybe..." Eccah said softly. "He was never a friend at all.." As Lloyd turned to look at her he saw that she was staring up at him through her untidy blonde hair. "Maybe... this was how he planned it to be from the very beginning."

"Does that really matter now?" Sheena interjected impatiently. "What's really important is that we go find out what happened to Colette! What if she's hurt?" Her words were met with a sharp growl from Sora, who was staring into the shadows that Kratos had disappeared into. He nodded jerkily.

"We go." he said in a strangely animalistic voice.

... ... ... ... ... ...

The time it took to reach the altar in the Tower of Salvation passed in a blur, and after what felt like only a few moments, they emerged from the shadows into the brightly lit altar room. Colette stood at the altar with her hands clasped together and her angel wings fluttering on her back, Remiel the angel hovering before her, smiling. Kratos was nowhere to be seen. As they entered the room, Remiel's head snapped up and a look of anger appeared on his face, though it quickly vanished to be replaced with the false smile he usually wore.

"If you've come to stop the Chosen," he said. "You're too late. The Final Seal has already been unlocked, and she must now sacrifice the only things she has left: her heart and memories." Lloyd gasped.

"Her heart and memories?" he repeated. "But...she'll _die_! That means she'll have given up everything that makes her human!" Remiel chuckled.

"Of course," he said. "In order for Colette to become Martel's vessel...she _must_ die."

"How could you do this to your own daughter?" Genis exclaimed. Remiel laughed mockingly.

"My daughter?" he said. "She is not my daughter."

"You lied to us!" Lloyd accused, but Remiel only laughed again.

"I never lied to you," he replied. "It was you humans who began calling me Colette's true father of your own accord." Before anything else could be said, Colette's body began to glow and she rose into the air. Lloyd cried out a protest, but was stopped in his tracks by Remiel.

"No!" Remiel hissed. "We must awaken the Goddess Martel!"

... ... ... ... ... ...

He stared through his servant's eyes, watching the Chosen's group as they were confronted with the truth. Grinning, he wondered eagerly when he should make his appearance. As he glanced at Kratos, who was standing beside him, his face emotionless, he said,

"Well, my friend, shall we make this party a little more interesting?" Kratos made no response, but Yggdrasill grinned anyway.

"Yes," he said. "I think it's about the right time." He rose from his throne, and after motioning for Kratos to follow him, headed toward the gateway to the Tower of Salvation.

... ... ... ... ... ...

As the Chosen's group confronted Remiel, Tregan stood back and watched from the shadowy doorway to the altar room. He was too late. Yes, Cruxis would fail, and he still had time to thwart them–he hoped–but Midna's plan had failed as he had expected. That foolish creature, always letting her emotions impede her judgement.

Even though Cruxis would fail now...the boy would be left alive. He doubted very much that either side would kill him, as it was still unclear which side he was truly on. However, it mattered not, because Tregan had lost his chance.

The boy was still alive.

... ... ... ... ... ...

Horror flooded through Lloyd as he watched Colette finally become a true angel. Horror, and a terrible, aching sadness. In his heart, he felt as though he had lost someone, as if a dear friend had died, and even as he saw Colette before him, he knew that she was the one his heart had lost.

"Colette," he murmured. "Colette, no..." He sank to his knees, staring up at her with hollow eyes.

"_I__'__m sorry Lloyd.__"_ Colette's voice echoed in his mind. His heart leapt as Colette looked right at him. _Was_ her voice only in his mind?

"Colette?" he whispered.

"_Lloyd!__"_her voice exclaimed. _"__You can hear me! I__'__m so happy! I__'__m so happy I can really say goodbye.__"_

"No Colette," Lloyd protested. "You don't have to say goodbye... you _can__'__t_ say goodbye..we'll find another way!" Colette shook her head.

"_No Lloyd.__"_ she said. _"__This is the way it has to be. I have to become Martel and regenerate the world.__"_ Seeing the look on his face, she added, _"__Yes, I knew..it was just too hard to tell you..__"_

"Colette..." Lloyd said hopelessly. Colette smiled sadly.

"_You__'__re a wonderful friend, Lloyd._" she said. _"__You__'__ve always been so good to me. I__'__m really grateful to have met you...Thank you. And...goodbye, Lloyd.__"_

As she uttered these final words, her eyes and expression went blank, and Lloyd felt as though his heart had been pulled from his chest, as though is lungs were being crushed and he couldn't breathe.

"Colette, NO!" he cried out in agony. A triumphant laugh came from nearby.

"Finally!" Remiel cried. "Finally, after so long, after so many years, the Goddess Martel can be awakened again!" At that instant, absolutely no coherent thought entered Lloyd's head. He was filled with agony, sadness and rage, and as he drew his swords and charged Remiel, nothing but a feral battle cry escaped his lips. A look of shock appeared on Remiel's face as Lloyd attacked, and he made no sound as Lloyd's blade plunged into his body. He struggled as Lloyd's swords assailed him again and again, but Lloyd's strikes were so vicious, that he stood no chance. After a moment, the angel fell in a crumpled heap at Lloyd's feet, and moved no more. Lloyd stood breathing heavily, glaring down at the dead emissary of Cruxis, his bloody swords still in his hands.

"Lloyd..." Genis breathed, staring at his friend with an odd expression on his face. It looked like awe mixed with shock, but whatever it was, at the moment, Lloyd didn't care.

"She knew..." he murmured. "She knew what would happen to her at the end of this journey, and she still went through with it."

"Lloyd," Rain said quietly. "She's known from the very beginning...since she was only a child. Colette has always been willing to do anything to save Sylvarant, even if it meant...sacrificing herself." Everyone turned their gaze to Raine.

"You knew too." Sheena whispered. Genis looked accusingly at his sister.

"How could you!" he demanded. "She was your student...your friend! How could you let her do this?"

"You let her go off to her death..." Lloyd whispered, looking back at Colette, who was now floating motionless at the altar, her face blank.

"If we had told you..." Raine said quietly. "Would you have let her go?"

"Of course not!" Lloyd and Genis replied in unison. Raine sighed.

"Exactly." she replied. "You would not have let her go, and Sylvarant would have wasted away to nothing. You would be sacrificing the world to save one life...Not only that, but Colette would have never forgiven you."

"Life survives at the cost of another..." Sheena muttered sadly.

"I would have found another way." Lloyd said. "I wouldn't have let Colette...die."

"My, what an.._emotional_ send-off for our dear Chosen." a voice said mockingly from behind them. Turning, they saw a tall, golden haired man hovering behind them, a pair of magnificent angel wings on his back. Before their eyes, he vanished into thin air and reappeared beside Colette.

"I'm sure that if she were still alive she'd be so touched." he said, a mocking smile on his face. His eyes scanned the group and his face lit up as his gaze fell upon Eccah. "My my, who do we have here?" He grinned maliciously. "Look, Kratos. Look who's here!"

"I know who she is, Yggdrasill" Kratos said impatiently as he appeared beside the golden haired man. "I can see her."

"So you're Yggdrasill." Raine said calmly.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Sheena snapped. Yggdrasill grinned again.

"You mean to tell you me you don't know?" he said in delight. "Now _this_ is even _better_! But why don't _you_ tell them, little Failure?" As all eyes fell on her, Eccah hung her head and remained silent. Her entire body was trembling.

"Go on, Failure. Tell them who you are."

... ... ... ... ... ...

Peering up at her friends through her hair, she trembled violently, but could not say a word. How could she possibly tell them? Surely they would abandon her if she said anything, but she could see how suspiciously they were all looking at her. Did they believe she was a traitor like Kratos? She looked at them, cringing away from the accusing expressions, but was mildly surprised to see that Raine was not looking at her. Raine was looking back and forth from Yggdrasill to Sora, and the expression on her face was one of slow realization. What had she discovered?

Finally, after what felt like hours, Eccah took a deep breath and opened her mouth.

"I–" she began.

"Come on, Failure, what's the matter?" Yggdrasill taunted. "Have you still not gotten your voice back from your _own_ journey?" Lloyd's eyes widened.

"What?" he gasped. Yggdrasill chuckled and Eccah hung her head once more. This was it. Her friends would leave her and she would be alone again. It was all over.

"Your little friend here," Yggdrasill said. "Was once a Chosen herself. One of those rare little occurrences where two Chosen are born into one world. However," He paused with an evil grin on his face, obviously enjoying the pain he was causing Eccah.

"She failed miserably, and her brothers were sent to a human ranch as punishment. _She _was supposed to stay here with the rest of the failures, but somehow, she got away."

"Eccah," Sheena breathed. "Is this true?" Eccah nodded, head still hung. Goodbye friends, they were going to abandon her.

"Why didn't you tell us, Eccah?" Genis asked, but his tone didn't sound angry, as if he were demanding an explanation. It sounded...sympathetic. Raising her eyes, she saw that no one looked angry, they looked concerned, as if they were actually worried about her.

"I was afraid," she said. "That you'd reject me." Lloyd laughed and put his hand on her shoulder.

"You dork." he said. "We wouldn't reject you for something like that." Eccah's heart skipped a beat as elation filled her.

"R-really?" she stammered. "You wouldn't?" Yggdrasill sighed.

"I tire of this," he said. "So I think I'll take the Chosen back with me now and reawaken the Goddess Martel, while my servant destroys you." Lloyd's grin quickly became a scowl.

"Kratos, you traitor. I thought you were our friend!" Lloyd cursed. "And now you're just going to turn around and kill us when some guy tells you to?" Kratos said nothing and Yggdrasill began to laugh.

"Kratos?" he said. "No, no, he will not be the one to do away with you today. I have more important work for him to do. No, another 'traitor' will be the one to slaughter you." There was a collective gasp.

"You mean..." Lloyd said slowly. "That someone else in our group is a traitor too?" Yggdrasill chuckled but did not reply.

"Who!" Sheena demanded. Suddenly, Raine gasped.

"That's it!" she exclaimed. "That's where I've heard his voice before! He was the one who was speaking when Sora-" She was cut off by a blood-curdling scream from Genis. Their heads whipped around to see him struggling against four slimy, parasitic-looking tentacles that were wrapping themselves around his body.

End Ch XVIII

Yggdrasill


	20. Ch IXX Mutation

**Disclaimer:** So... seeing as _Cytea_ isn't around, as while I am writing this I am at work, this shall serve as my temporary disclaimer. If I end up really liking it, mayhaps I shall use it as a future disclaimer. Who knows? Anyway, seeing as it's fun to not do this alone, I shall spin the sacred Wheel of Destiny to choose my next victim! Er, I mean..._co-host_! Yeah! That's what I meant.. Let us spin the Wheel. Spin my Wheel! Spin! *Wheel spins*

Kratos: *angry silence*

Wavemasterkaz: "Oh for the love of– Kratos! Get out of here!"

Kratos: *angry silence. Doesn't move.*

Wavemasterkaz: :Go away, would ya?" *looks at Kratos* "Whoa, dude. Your face is turning really red. You choking on something?"

Kratos: "Sacred powers, cast thy purifying light upon these corrupt souls."

Wavemasterkaz: *O_O* "Oh shit! Kratos, there's uh..no need to get all hostile! We, eheh, can't we work this out?"

Kratos: "Rest in peace, sinners!"

Wavemasterkaz: "No! I want to live! I'm too young and awesome to die! I still have thirteen days left before I can buy scratch carrrrds!"

Kratos: "Judgement!"

Wavemasterkaz: *ducks and covers her head as large rays of light rain down from the sky...or..rather, the ceiling.* "Nuuuuuu!" *Looks up, sees she is alive.* "Yay! I'm not dead! Haha, Kratos, you missed!"

Kratos: *smirks* "No, I didn't."

Wavemasterkaz: "?" *Examines self* "But I'm fine..."

Kratos: *smiles and chuckles*

Wavemasterkaz: *Follows Kratos' gaze* "Noooooo! My Wheel! You destroyed my Wheel of Destiny!"

Kratos: *grins*

Wavemasterkaz: "Y-you–you murderer! You Wheel killer!"

Kratos: "Call me what you will, you no longer have any power over me. Farewell." *walks away*

Wavemasterkaz: "You know who owns what. Go away." *mourns Wheel*

**Chapter IXX**

_Mutation_

Lloyd began to run to Genis' side, but was startled by a loud hiss. Horror and revulsion flooded through him as he realized that the tentacles wrapping themselves around his friend were coming from Sora's mouth.

Sora was crouched once again in an animal-like position, his mouth gaping and the tentacles sprouting from his throat. His eyes were rolled into the back of his head, and as Lloyd watched, they sunk into his skill and he found himself staring into empty, bloody eye sockets.

"What the hell!" Lloyd cried, scrambling backward. Sora laughed a wheezy, rattling laugh, blood pouring from his mouth with every heave of his chest. His teeth lengthened and two more rows of teeth sprouted behind his lips, razor-sharp and pointing in every direction. His skin began to darken into a leathery brown colour, and the black marking that had appeared on his face in Hima burned like the blackest flame. His flesh sunk inward until it clung to his skeleton, and his fingernails sprouted into large, hooked talons. Fur sprouted on his face and neck, as his body was covered in scales, and large bony spikes ripped through the flesh on his back. Wolfish ears grew on his head and a long, reptilian tail was suddenly thrashing behind him. His hair grew into a mane that ran down his back to the end of his tail. His face lengthened into a snout, but rather than stretch with the bone, his skin ripped around it, leaving part of his skull and jaw bones exposed. He laughed his wheezy, rattling laugh again and more tentacles shot from his throat to wrap themselves around Genis.

"Oh my god!" Sheena screamed. Yggdrasill began to laugh, and Kratos' face was expressionless as the two of them watched.

"Sora stop it!" Lloyd yelled and slashed at one of the tentacles with his sword. The severed tentacle fell to the ground and writhed like an angry snake, but Sora showed no reaction. Two more tentacles shot at Lloyd and fixed themselves around his ankles, pulling his feet out from under him.

"Die!" Yggdrasill laughed. "Die!"

... ... ... ... ... ...

To watch Lloyd and the rest of the Chosen's entourage battling desperately against the parasitic tentacles was more difficult than he would have thought. Every time a tentacle was whipped across flesh or wrapped around a limb, he felt a strong urge to rush to their aid. For Lloyd especially. However, he held his ground and stood silently at Yggdrasill's side.

"Isn't this exciting, Kratos?" Yggdrasill said jubilantly. "Such a shame that I must depart. When he's had his fun and is finished disposing of them, bring him back to me, would you? He'll need to be rewarded." Kratos nodded jerkily, and Yggdrasill turned to leave. But then, at that instant, something happened that left Kratos feeling a bit dazed.

As he watched, a tentacle wrapped itself around Lloyd's throat and tightened. Lloyd gasped, and tried to pull away, but the tentacle only tightened even more. Sora, who had been motionless for most of the attack, suddenly sprung at Lloyd, teeth bared and talons raised.

_No!_ Kratos pleaded silently, surprising himself. _Stop!_ To the amazement of everyone in the room, Sora suddenly stopped himself in midair, landed neatly in front of Lloyd, and looked over at Kratos expectantly with his empty eye sockets.

_Just like Hima..._ Kratos thought. Yggdrasill, who had been about to step into the portal to Derris-Kharlan, Colette in tow, whipped around.

"What the hell did you stop for?" he shouted. "Kill them! I order you to kill them!" An angry snarl built in Sora's chest as he lunged for Lloyd again, but just as suddenly, he stopped at another silent plea from Kratos.

"_He listens to you, Kratos! Even your thoughts!"_ Midna's voice cried in Kratos' mind. _"Take advantage of that! If not to save him, then to save Lloyd!" _

_But why?_ Kratos thought._ Why does he obey me?_

"_I've told you! He's your–"_

"Kill them!"

_No!_

... ... ... ... ... ...

He didn't know what to do. Commands were being fired at him from all directions, and he didn't know whose to obey. He could still sense his targets close by, but...who were they again? He vaguely remembered faces, but in his eyeless state, he was completely blind to the world.

Wait...what happened? He was blind? Why did he feel so...enraged? Why did he taste blood in his mouth? Panic flowed through him as he realized that something was not right and he didn't know where he was. He began to back away from the source of the confusion, ready to flee at the first hint of danger, but was stopped by a tugging feeling at his insides.

_What the hell?_ What could be pulling at his _insides_? He tried to pull away again, but was met with the same feeling. Terror filled him and he cried out, but all he could hear was a vicious sounding roar. This also frightened him and he began to claw blindly around him. As he did, he heard someone scream and a startled yell in his mind. Why was Lloyd screaming? Wait...Lloyd! He remembered Lloyd! Someone was hurting him? How dare someone hurt his friend when _he_ was around?

He roared angrily and pounded his talons on the ground.

"What are you doing, you useless creature! What the HELL are you doing! I ORDERED YOU TO KILL THEM!" What was this voice? It was so irritating and childish to him. Yet in the very core of his being he felt an instinct to obey it. He didn't want to, but the instinct was too powerful to ignore. He felt his body crouch, ready to pounce once more, but before he could, he heard another voice. However, this one sounded only in his mind.

"_Sora, do not harm them."_ Now whose voice was this? It was so calm and smooth..and familiar. Yes, he felt the need to obey this voice as well, but it felt more natural to him. He knew that he would have obeyed even without the instinct. He waited for the next order.

_What do you wish of me? _he inquired. There was silence for a moment, then,

"_I wish for you to obey me. The ones you are being ordered to attack–you must _not_ harm them."_

_Do not harm them._ he repeated. He could feel the approval of the unknown master.

"Kill them!" came a command from the irritating master. He unwillingly crouched.

"_No!" _the good master said. _"Do not kill them. Protect them. They must be kept alive, at all costs. You must protect them from everyone, including myself and anyone else that orders you to hurt them. Understand?"_

_Yes. I understand._

... ... ... ... ... ...

"What the hell is going on here!" Yggdrasill demanded. "I ordered you to kill them, so WHY HAVE YOU NOT KILLED THEM?"

"Lord Yggdrasill," Kratos said calmly. "It may be malfunctioning. I will take care of the situation here, and bring the Chosen back to you. Return to Derris-Kharlan." Yggdrasill considered this.

"Yes, that will do nicely." he agreed. "But bring that–" he pointed angrily at Sora, who was now clawing frantically at his own face. "Back with you. I'll deal with it myself."

"Yes, my Lord." Kratos replied. Satisfied, Yggdrasill turned on his heel and departed for Derris-Kharlan.

... ... ... ... ... ...

Lloyd didn't know who was a bigger threat, Kratos advancing toward them, sword drawn, or Sora, who seemed to be trying to rip his own face off. Deciding on Kratos, he glared at the man whom he'd almost begun to view as a mentor and held his swords ready.

"So you're really going to do this." Lloyd said. It wasn't a question. Kratos said nothing, but Lloyd understood. "Fine." he said. "Then let's finish this."

... ... ... ... ... ...

Before Kratos even landed one blow, he knew that his plan had been successful. He charged at Lloyd, sword raised, and as he swung the blade toward the boy's head, he was thrown backward with incredible force. As he landed several yards away, the wind knocked out of him, he couldn't help but smile. This was working nicely.

"What the–" he heard Lloyd exclaim. Coughing, he hauled himself to his feet to see Sora standing protectively in front of Lloyd, snarling, tentacles writhing wildly.

"He's protecting you now?" Raine breathed.

"Jeez, Sora," Genis said in an exasperated tone. "Would ya make up your mind?"

His face set, Kratos prepared himself for another attack, moving forward at a breakneck speed that only an angel was capable of, but yet again, his attack was countered by Sora.

"_Is this what you ask of me?"_ Sora's voice asked Kratos' mind.

_Yes._ he replied. _Fight me. Protect them even from me._ There was a pause.

"_As you wish."_

End Chapter XX

Mutation


	21. Ch XX Programmed Killer

**Disclaimer**: Wellll now! Looks like I'm back after a little break, and all I have to say is "Happy Thanksgiving!" It's not Thanksgiving today, but this is the weekend of, so...yeah! Woo! Turkey Day!

Ioda: "Uhm...weren't you just crying over your Wheel last chapter?"

Wavemasterkaz: "..." * face is frozen with a shocked expression*

Ioda: "Uh...hello? You still alive?"

Wavemasterkaz: *eye twitches*

Ioda: "Kaz?"

Wavemasterkaz: *explodes into tears and begins mourning Wheel *

Ioda: "...oh...kay then? Heh..." *looks a bit freaked out*

Wavemasterkaz: *now holding scrap of wood that can only be assumed to be a piece of the Wheel* "WHEEEEEEEL!"

Ioda: "You know you're fucked up, right?"

Wavemasterkaz: *continues to mourn Wheel*

Ioda: "You know what's not hers by now."

**Chapter XX**

_Programmed Killer_

When he woke up, he was in a strange room, one he did not recognize. He was vaguely aware that his whole body hurt, but it was the blackness on the edges of his memory that bothered him. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't remember how he got here or what had happened before that. The last thing in his memory was waking up in Hima feeling like he was burning alive and his head pounding. He tried to sit up and groaned. Everything was spinning and he felt like he might vomit if he moved, but he forced himself to sit up anyway.

"Oh," he heard Sheena say. "Sora's awake." He looked over at her as she came over to him. "Got a pretty nasty bump on his head too...looks like they hit him pretty hard."

"Wait..." Sora said. "Who now?" Everyone looked at him, surprise on their faces. After a moment of staring in silence, Sora spoke. "Did I...miss something?"

"You're back!" Eccah cried as she tackled him with a tight hug. "Well..." her voice was muffled as she spoke into his neck. "Kind of.."

"Back? Kind of? Wha?" He looked around at his friends who were staring at him with mixed expressions on their faces. He saw relief, surprise, and...distrust? Was he imagining that last one?

"You're acting like a human being again at least." Raine said quietly. He expected her to come over and start examining him, lecturing him about how he wasn't doing a very good job of guarding Colette if he was getting himself hurt like this all the time, but she kept her distance. Then what she had said registered in his mind.

"What the hell are you talking about?" The group exchanged glances that said both that they thought he was crazy, and that they didn't believe he didn't know, but no one said a word. Panic was beginning to rise in his chest and he didn't know why. "What are you talking about! What happened!" he demanded.

"You really don't remember do you.." Genis muttered. Sora looked from one face to the next, but no one would meet his eyes. What had he done? Finally, his gaze fell upon Genis, and he gasped. There were large scabby cut marks all over his arms, legs and face, and he was badly bruised in a number of places. The others had similar wounds, but none as serious as the young half-elf's. Could this be why his body hurt when he'd woken up? He hurriedly examined his own flesh, but found no marks. What had happened when he'd blacked out?

"Sora..."Eccah said quietly. He looked at her to see that she had a large cut across her cheek. Their eyes met hers told him the very thing he'd been dreading hearing.

"No.." he said, backing away from her. "No, I..." Raine sighed and came over to him, holding a small mirror.

"Look." she said. He did as he was told and couldn't' help but scream in horror. That couldn't be his face.. There was no way. His eyes were sunk into his skull, and they were an angry red. There was no flesh over his jaw, only bone, and the bone that was exposed looked like it belonged on an animal. Looking more closely at the rest of his body, he saw that he seemed to have been deflated. His skin clung to his skeleton, with no evidence of any internal organs, and in several places he could see his own rib cage where his skin had ripped. He had claws instead of fingernails and as he watched, a small red tentacle-like thing flicked out from between two of his ribs and twisted wildly in the air before retreating back into his body. He yelled again and scrambled away from them, falling over the back of the sofa he'd been sitting on and backing himself up against the wall. Breathing wildly, his eyes darted to each of their faces and panic rose further inside him as he realized what this must mean.

... ... ... ... ... ...

"So you're all awake now. Good." All eyes turned to the door as a new voice suddenly spoke, and they saw a blue-haired man standing in the doorway, regarding them.

"You..." Lloyd said slowly. "You're the assassin that attacked us in Hima!" The man looked at Lloyd.

"Indeed." he said, then turned his attentions to Sora, who was still nearly hyperventilating, backed up against the wall. "Can we honestly trust you? Or should I have you locked away?" Sora didn't answer, merely sunk to his knees and held his head, shivering. His sanity seemed to have left him, though he was far less violent this time. After a moment, the blue-haired man turned back to the others. "I am Yuan." he said. "And I am the leader of the Renegades, an organization who opposes Cruxis."

"So you must have been the ones who saved us at the Tower of Salvation, correct?" Raine said. Yuan nodded.

"Yes," he said. "Our plan is to defeat Cruxis and make sure that none of their future plans can succeed. We hope to stop the cycle of Chosens being sacrificed once and for all."

"But if you do that, my world will die!" Sheena protested.

"Rest assured that we are looking for a way to save both worlds." Yuan replied. "The cycle being ended is what is best for both worlds. But in order to achieve this, we need you to give us the Chosen." Lloyd gasped.

"What?" he demanded. Yuan looked at him.

"Yggdrasill wants the Chosen because in her current state, she can be used to awaken the Goddess Martel. We cannot let her fall into his hands and risk everything, can we?"

"I won't let you hurt Colette!" Lloyd growled. Yuan chucked.

"Relax." he said. I wouldn't dream of touching the Chosen in her current state. Her only goal is self preservation and she'll kill you without a second thought if she were to sense a threat from you."

"Then why do you want her?"

"I don't think that's really necessary to explain to you." Yuan replied a bit sharply. "Now, hand her over."

... ... ... ... ... ...

He sat shivering away from the others, still breathing erratically, panic still gripping and making him irrational. What the hell had happened to him and what had he done? It was eight years ago all over again... He was rocking back and forth, pulling at his hair in frustration at not being able to remember when he heard weapons being drawn. There was going to be a battle? As he listened, temporarily distracted, he heard Kratos' voice echo in his mind.

_Protect them._

... ... ... ... ... ...

Yuan proved to be a formidable opponent, and Lloyd soon found himself being overpowered. He fell to one knee, panting heavily and waited for Yuan to strike the final blow. He heard Yuan's blade slicing through the air, but the sound stopped suddenly with a dull thud. Looking up, he saw Sora's jaws closed tightly on the blade of Yuan's weapon.

"Get out of here!" Sora said, his voice muffled by clenched teeth. Lloyd stared at him for a moment. "Go!" Sora yelled, grabbing Yuan's blade with his clawed hands and throwing the blue haired man back.

"You're...saving us?" Lloyd gasped. Sora growled.

"Would you just get lost already?" he shouted.

"Shut your mouth!" Yuan snapped. "You're nothing but a programmed killer! Lloyd, you would trust him after he betrayed you?" Lloyd said nothing, looking back and forth from Yuan to Sora, not knowing which side to choose.

"If you don't get out of here, how do you expect to save Colette!" Sora yelled, and in an instant, Lloyd's mind was made up.

"Don't die, okay?" he said so only Sora could hear. As Sora threw Yuan back again and countered an attack from Yuan's subordinate, Botta, he said,

"I ain't makin' any promises."

End Ch XXI


	22. Ch XXI Escape

**Disclaimer**: Well now.. Here's another one but I can't even remember what chapter I'm on.. Aha.. I've been writing them on the school computer's up til now, with the odd exception of a few that were on the world's crappiest desktop computer AKA Grandpa Desky, and on my grandpa's laptop. But now I finally have my own laptop so this will be a whole hell of a lot easier for me. So…ahem. Shall we begin?

Ioda: "What, no fancy disclaimer this time?"

Wavemasterkaz: "Nah, they all know who owns what by now and my disclaimers never really seem to go anywhere…"

Kris: "Aww come on I never got to be in one!"

Wavemasterkaz: *sigh* "Alright fine. Kris, you get to do this one today."

Steve: "Me too!" *grins in a stoned sort of way*

Wavemasterkaz: "Steve, have you been smoking your funny cigarettes again?"

Steve: "….maybe."

Wavemasterkaz: "Great."

Kris: "Aright! So the Canekura twins are doin' the honours this time! Rad."

Wavemasterkaz: "Just get on with it."

Kris: "Wavemasterkaz-"

Steve: "Does not own-"

Kris: "Anything at all in this story-"

Steve: "Except for a few characters."

Kris: "And I'm sure-"

Steve: "You all know by now-"

Both: "Who owns what."

Wavemasterkaz: "…wow. That was…strangely annoying."

Kris and Steve both yell two separate things at the same time.

Kris: *looks irritated* "Come on man, we rehearsed this!"

Wavemasterkaz: "…"

**Chapter XXII**

_Escape_

"Give it up, fool!" Yuan growled as he attacked Sora relentlessly. "No matter what you do, we will have the Chosen!" He swung his blade toward Sora, but the redhead caught it once again between his razor-like teeth. As Sora threw Yuan back, he swung his body around to counter an attack from Botta. With every attack he landed, and every attack he received, he seemed to grow stronger, and more and more vicious in his retaliation. As the moments passed there seemed to be a sort of deranged mindlessness to him, and his movements became jerky and impulsive. He was mutating yet again, but what could she do to help him? She had failed in her plan to convince Kratos of a second son, but surely there was another way she could save him…

If she could get him safely to Tethe'alla… maybe Tregan wouldn't follow him. Maybe she could buy him more time. It was doubtful, but…worth a try. She couldn't just sit here in her shadowy hiding place forever, could she?

No, that really wasn't an option at all.

... ... ... ... ... ...

Sheena was in the lead as they scoured the Renegade base, desperately searching for what Sheena had called the Rheiards. They were assaulted by new soldiers around every corner, but so far they had not detected Yuan or Botta in pursuit of them, so that meant Sora was still alive. Whether or not that was a good thing, however, Lloyd wasn't sure. He knew that Sora had been working for Yggdrasill, and that he had turned on them at the Tower of Salvation, but he couldn't help but feel that the Sora he had left in that room was different from the Sora who had attacked them at Yggdrasill's command. He wasn't sure why, but even though Sora was a traitor, he felt as though he had left his best friend behind to die.

... ... ... ... ... ...

"_Sora. Can you hear me?"_ he jumped at a voice in his mind. What the hell? Was he losing it again? Hearing voices was never a good sign.

_Uh…yeah? _he replied in his own mind. He leapt out of the path of Botta's weapon and crouched, ready to pounce.

"_It's me."_

_Midna?_ He hurdled himself forward, bowling Yuan over and flinging his weapon across the room, then quickly turned around and grabbed Botta's wrist as the other man was about to attack. Botta was swiftly thrown across the room as well.

"_You mean you don't recognize my voice? Gee, thanks a lot Sora."_

_Did you actually need anything? _he shot back, not bothering to hide his irritation. _Kind of busy here._ Botta was laying motionless where Sora had thrown him, still alive from what he could tell, but Yuan had quickly regained himself and was now assaulting Sora with a flurry of attacks with his fists and feet. He was very adept at this style of fighting as well and Sora felt himself beginning to tire, his adrenaline-fueled ferocity beginning to fade.

"_If you hurry, you can still make it." _Midna told him. _"And you'll have the chance to be safe again!"_

_What the hell are you talking about?_

"_You can still catch up with Lloyd and the others! You can go with them to Tethe'alla and be safe there for a while. You don't want to be killed here, do you?"_ Sora snarled as he grabbed Yuan by the wrists and swung around, hurling him into the wall. A pause, then,

_They wouldn't want me with them. Not after what I did._

"_But you're their friend, Sora. Friendship means a lot to these people.""_

_Friend or not. Look what I did to them… I hurt them.. I hurt Colette.. I hurt Lloyd. How would they ever let me join them after that.._

"_Would you rather stay here and die?" _Sora didn't reply._ "Well?"_ Midna demanded.

_I'm thinking!_ he snapped.

... ... ... ... ... ...

It seemed like hours before they found the hangar for the Rheiards, but when they arrived there, a sense of relief washed over them. Now they had a fighting chance to escape. While the others looked at the vehicles in bewilderment, Sheena expertly prepared them for take-off. Her heart pounding, Eccah turned yet again to look at the door behind them, desperately hoping to see him burst through it at any moment and flee with them to safety. If there was any higher power, however, they did not answer her prayers, for the door remained shut, and even now, Sheena was pairing them up and sending them off on the Rheiards.

_If you can't come with us…_ she thought, willing him to hear, wherever he was. _Stay safe here._

"Don't die, okay?" she whispered.

"Come on, Eccah." Sheena said, gesturing for the blonde to join her on her Rheiard. "Let's go."

... ... ... ... ... ...

Lloyd was the last to board a Rheiard, and as he prepared it for take-off as Sheena had shown him, he couldn't help but wonder if his red-haired, blue-eyed friend was still alive. Friend…funny, even though Sora was a traitor, Lloyd still thought of him as a great friend. Would Yuan defeat him? Or would Sora escape and live on here in Sylvarant? He sighed. Perhaps he'd never know. He took one last look at the doors behind him, and gripped the steering mechanism of the Rheiard as a burst of mana fired from the back.

"Lloyd!" Sora called his name as he came crashing through the doors to the hangar, closely followed by a furious Yuan. Sora lurched forward, but missed his target as Lloyd began to take off, and Yuan grabbed his ankle with a vindictive smile. In a split second decision, Lloyd reached down and grabbed the collar of Sora's jacket, pulling him along as they soared into the sky. He heard Yuan's cry of outrage, followed by the sound of something slicing through the air, and a yelp of pain from Sora. If it wouldn't have unseated him from the vehicle, Lloyd would have turned to see what had happened, but instead settled for hoisting Sora up behind him. His friend hardly seemed to be making any effort to help, for he seemed extraordinarily heavy… Had Yuan seriously injured him? He shook his head. No time to think about that. He had to catch up to the others. There would be time to worry about Sora when they were safe. But when would that be? He could see the other Rheiards ahead of him, about to be swallowed by a bright light. There was no turning back now. Either make it safely to Tethe'alla…or die trying.

End Chapter

A/N: All I have to say is… sorry about the cliché at the end. You may kill me now. X3


	23. Ch XXII Arrival

**Disclaimer**: Well now.. it has been quite some time hasn`t it? I apologize for my horrid slowness and general awfulness at updating, I've had a _lot_ going on… I'm sure the most active of my readers, being _Cytea(DarthSader)_ and _Indeffinate_ already know what's been going on, but for those of you who don't I won't post a huge rant but here's the general idea. I moved, moved again, stopped going to school, got dumped, got my hours increased at work and then cut just as suddenly, I got a kitten, my computer died and was then revived, and almost all of my friends moved away to go to college/university. Lame? Yes, very. But enough about me, let's get on with the story. I'm sure by this point you all know who owns everything in this story, so I won't bore you with the details.

**Chapter XXII**

_Arrival_

She woke in a daze sometime later, her body aching and her mind hazy. As she opened her eyes she realized that something felt different but she couldn't quite pinpoint what it was. The sky above her was a cheerful robin's egg blue, and the grass on which she was laying was lush and green. The air was cool and the atmosphere seemed peaceful enough, but…different. Sitting up, she looked around and gasped as the memories flooded back to her. The escape from the Renegade base, stealing the Rheiards, the ecstasy of flying at such a high speed, and finally, crashing into one of the mountains of Tethe'alla. Her friends were scattered across the ground, crumpled and broken looking, as she was sure she must have looked only a moment ago, and the Rheiards, which were now little more than smoking, demolished heaps of metal, were strewn about between the unconscious travelers. She hurried to her feet, dashing over to the nearest of her companions, Raine. The elf was knocked out cold, but after a few stammered healing spells from Eccah, she opened her eyes.

"Eccah?" she muttered. "Oh! Is everyone alright?" Raine sat bolt upright and gasped in the same way that Eccah had when she saw everyone laying crumpled on the ground as though dead.

"Do you think they're all okay?" Eccah asked nervously. Raine got to her feet.

"They'll be fine." she said comfortingly.

... ... ... ... ... ...

The first thing Lloyd heard when he came to was voices. Then, after a moment, the pain hit him at the same instant as the memory of what happened. He sat up swiftly, regretting it instantly, for every bone in his body ached and every muscle screamed. Despite this, the only thing on his mind was making sure that Sora was alright. The fact that his friend had been so motionless during their escape worried him. Looking around, he saw that Raine had revived most of them, and, like him, they were looking around in confusion and rubbing their aching bodies. Satisfied that everyone else was okay, he turned to Sora who lay right beside him. His face was contorted in an expression of agony and he was curled into a ball, his arms wound tightly around himself. Lloyd noted with relief that his friend's face was no longer mutated and the only sign of his earlier change was his apparent drastic weight loss.

"Sora, wake up." Lloyd said, shaking Sora's shoulder. After a moment, Sora coughed and opened his eyes.

"What the hell did you do," Sora grumbled. "Crash us into a mountain?" Lloyd laughed.

"Actually, yeah, I did." He said, still laughing. Sora grinned weakly and sitting up, punched Lloyd lightly in the arm.

"You knob." Sora teased, but his grin quickly disappeared and he curled up in pain again. There was a large gash on his chest and left arm, where Lloyd could only assume Yuan had wounded him.

"Hey, you okay?" Lloyd asked, looking at his friend in concern. Sora grunted.

"Lloyd, are you alright?" Raine asked him, appearing over his shoulder. Lloyd nodded and sighed with relief as she healed his few notable injuries with a quick healing spell. Lloyd thanked her and hauled himself to his feet, then turned to Sora, who was still curled into a tight ball.

"I'll survive." He said, answering Lloyd's question before it was asked. Lloyd was unconvinced but at that instant his eyes fell on Colette, pushing all thoughts of the traitor beside him from his mind. Colette was standing a short distance away from everyone else, her eyes blank and her face expressionless. Hurrying over to her, Lloyd shook her shoulders, calling her name and desperately trying to get a response out of her.

"Lloyd.." Eccah said quietly. "It's no use. She can't hear you.." Lloyd turned to look at Eccah, who was looking at him directly. Despite everything else, it mildly surprised him to see that for once she was not peering timidly at him from under her hair.

"She's in there, I _know_ she is." He said. "Somewhere in there is the real Colette. _Our _Colette. We have to get her back."

"It won't be easy.." Eccah replied. "When I…" she paused, biting her lower lip. "When I was in that state, it took Sora a long time to bring me back. He said he talked to me a lot, but… I couldn't hear him. And I don't think Colette can hear you either."

"You said that Sora brought you out of this state?" Lloyd said, hope dawning on his face. Eccah nodded, brushing a bit of hair from her face. "So that means he knows how to do it."

"I guess so." Was all Eccah replied before returning to Raine's side as she revived her younger brother. Lloyd took one last look into Colette's empty eyes, then went to Sora, who was still hunched over.

"Sora." He said. Sora looked up at him, eyes squinted and jaw clenched. "I know.. that this isn't the best time, and I don't even know if I should trust you, but…I have a question."

"Great." Sora said sarcastically, raising one eyebrow. "And I have a headache. You gonna ask or just announce shit?" Lloyd raised an eyebrow at the manner in which Sora had replied but decided to ignore it and continued.

"Eccah told me that when she'd been in the same state that Colette is in now, you brought her back to her normal self. So that means you know how to do it."

"That's still not a question, Lloyd." Sora said, smiling cynically. Lloyd shrugged.

"I'm getting to it," he replied. "So my question is: Will you tell me how to save Colette?" Sora regarded him for a moment and then sighed. He slowly shook his head. Lloyd stared at him, and in a surge of anger, roughly grabbed Sora by the shoulders, pulling him into a standing position. "Why?" he demanded, his face an inch away from Sora's. Sora scowled and pushed him away.

"Hey, calm the hell down." He snapped, stumbling as Lloyd released his grip.

"Then tell me why won't you help me!" Lloyd shouted. The others turned to look at them. Sora said nothing, merely continued to scowl. "Why!" Again, Sora said nothing. Another surge of anger pulsed through Lloyd, and his hands balled into fists.

"Damn it Sora tell me how to save her!" he yelled.

"Why!" Sora yelled back. "So you can save her and then ditch me? 'Cause I _am_ a traitor of course, right? I don't even know why you're bothering to trust me now. It's not worth it. You say you'd do anything to save your friends but how do you know they won't all just turn on you one day like I did? Friends never stick around forever, they say they will and then when things get too hard to deal with they just turn around and ditch you like you don't even matter! You know I could turn around and kill every one of you, right? Are you that desperate to save her that you'll lead all of your friends to their possible doom by trusting me? Are you desperate enough to sacrifice your entire world just for one person? Are you really that stupid Lloyd? What the hell is wrong with—" he was cut off as Lloyd punched him as hard as he could in the face.

"Shut up!" Lloyd shouted, grabbing the collar of Sora's jacket. "Why don't you stop wallowing in self pity already! You obviously feel guilty about betraying us so why not make up for it by helping us! You may have turned on us, but you're still my friend! I don't know what 'friends' you had before that treated you like that but not everyone's like that and assuming that we are is an insult. Grow up and stop feeling sorry for yourself!"

The group had grown silent during this shouted argument, but now Genis stepped forward.

"Lloyd's right, Sora." He said. "You should know that we're not like that at all. He would never use you and then ditch you. And I agree with him about trusting you too. I… I don't know why but even though you betrayed us I still feel like you're our friend and I still trust you, Sora." A moment passed in silence, and Sora stared away from them, as if contemplating what had been said. Lloyd released his grip on the redhead's jacket and Sora slumped into a sitting position, rubbing his now bruised cheek. As Eccah went to Sora's side, Lloyd decided to try again.

"So…" he said. "Will you help me?" Sora sighed, and once again shook his head.

"I'm sorry, Lloyd." He said softly. "I can't."

"W-why…?" Lloyd asked, dumbfounded. Still avoiding everyone's eyes, Sora brushed his hair away from his face.

"I don't know how."

"What do you mean you don't know how?" Eccah asked him, putting a hand on his shoulder. Her eyes were the only ones Sora would meet. "I mean… you brought me back, didn't you?" Sora sighed again.

"No, it wasn't me." He said, looking up at the sky with a slightly frustrated look on his face. "It was my dad."

End Chapter XXII

Arrival


	24. Ch XXIII Plans

**Disclaimer**: Well, here I am again, updating immediately. While writing these, I don't have internet at my house, so when I do manage to get it hooked up here I'll likely be posting them all at once. I've been sick the last few days so I've had a lot of time to write, and as a result, I finished the last chapter and started this one. I've also been devoting a lot of time to piano playing, but enough about me. I'm feeling inspired so let us continue with the story shall we? I think you all know by now who owns what so I'm not even going to bother. Onward!

Chapter XXIII

_Plans_

"What do you mean it was your dad? I thought you didn't know who your dad was, or if he was alive?"

"No, you're right, I probably should have explained that one a little better." Sora said, still staring away from them. "I don't know who my _biological_ father is. My foster father was the one who brought Eccah back to her normal self."

"But he's back in Sylvarant." Lloyd said in dismay, his face falling. He turned to look at Colette again, who was still staring blankly off into space.

"Looks like we're going to have to find another way to save Colette." Raine sighed. They were silent for a moment, until Sheena gasped.

"Wait, I have an idea." She said. "There's a research laboratory in Meltokio, Tethe'alla's capital city. Maybe you can find some information on how to save her there. I can take you there."

"Alright!" Genis said cheerfully. "Onward to Meltokio!"

"Yeah…" Lloyd and Sora half-heartedly agreed.

... ... ... ... ... ...

As they made last minute preparations to leave the mountain-top and head to Tethe'alla's capital city, Sora remained where he was, staring at the ground. He couldn't bring himself to look at them, to see the marks on their faces from what he had done. Though he could not remember attacking them he still felt a horrible pang of guilt when he saw the semi-healed gash on Lloyd's cheek, or the scabbed marks all over Genis' body. Every one of them bore evidence of his assault, and yet they all still trusted him. Even Eccah. Sweet, innocent Eccah with her timid blue eyes and soft skin, who refused to hurt another living being even at the cost of her own life had felt the cruel lash of..whatever was inside him, but when she looked at him, her eyes still sparkled and her cheeks still flushed a most wonderful shade of pink. Normally his heart would soar upon seeing such a look, and he often did turn his gaze to her just to see this reaction, but now…it brought none of the usual joy. It made him sick to see such open trust and adoration on her face, for him, a pitiless, black-hearted monster. He deserved it even less than Kratos deserved to be nominated as "friend of the year". He knew Lloyd was right and that he should stop wallowing in self pity, yet he could not bring himself to act upon the feeling. All he wanted to do was lie here while the others went on. He wanted to remain on this mountain-top forever until his body was dust and his heartbeat had been long silenced.

"Lloyd," he said finally, when the swirling hell his thoughts had become was too much to bear.

"Yeah?" Lloyd replied, looking at him. Finally meeting his brown-haired friend's eyes, Sora said,

"I'm sorry."

Lloyd regarded him for a moment, then nodded, a half smile on his face.

"Cut it out, Sora." He said with a soft laugh. "You're depressing everyone." Sora let out a small chuckle, and gave a smile that did not reach his eyes.

"I guess you're right." He said, shrugging. He began to stand up, but as he did so, a horrible surge of pain bolted through his body, paralyzing him. He tried to cry out but his chest felt constricted and all that escaped his lips was a strangled gasp, before he collapsed into an uncontrollable seizure. It was over as suddenly as it had begun and Sora soon found himself laying in a crumpled heap, drenched in sweat and breathing heavily. Opening his eyes, which had been squeezed shut he saw a small silvery blue object laying on the ground beside him. It looked vaguely familiar.

"Whoa, hey!" Lloyd cried out. "Sora! Are you okay?" After a moment, when he had regained control over his body, Sora reached out to pick up the silvery object and groaned when he saw that his hands had once again become clawed paws. Pushing himself up, he realised that his whole body had re-mutated. For some reason, however, this hardly bothered him. He somehow knew that he could willingly change back at any time. He turned his head to Lloyd, in order to tell him so, but as he did, the silvery blue object shot from the ground and struck him in the neck.

Crying out in surprise, he pawed at his throat but the object—whatever it was—was slowly embedding itself in his flesh and he was only helping it along. An odd feeling overcame him as it disappeared into his body and in a panic, he began to nervously paw the ground.

"What just happened?" Raine demanded, coming over to them, narrowly avoiding Sora's tail, which was whipping frantically around him. Realising this, he held it still and attempted to calm himself.

_You're fine, Sora. Just calm the hell down so you don't hurt anyone. You can still see, you know where you are, everything's going to be fine. You have complete control this time, and Midna is here to help you. That angel bastard isn't here to make you hurt anyone this time, just calm down. C'mon, calm down dammit!_

"I don't know, he just started..._seizing_." Lloyd attempted to explain to Raine. "Then all of a sudden he was okay again and some weird thing just went into his neck." Raine digested this new information and then turned to Sora a bit apprehensively.

"Can you hear me Sora?" she asked uncertainly. Sora tried to reply that he could, in fact, hear her but all that came out was a very canine sounding howl. Trying again with the same result, he settled for a nod. Satisfied with his answer, Raine asked, "Can you control yourself this time?" Again, Sora nodded.

"He changed once like this before.." Eccah said, as if recalling a distant memory. "But once he realised who he was and got control again, he could change himself back." Turning to Sora, she said, "Can't you change back, Sora?" Sora tilted his head, then nodded, to show he remembered, and understood. Focusing his mind, he tried to shift back into his own body. As he did he felt the same seizure-like sensation as before, only less severe. Confused, he tried again, but with the same result. Every time he attempted to shift back, his body would freeze up on him and the flow of air to his lungs would be cut off. Howling in frustration, he clawed at the ground and shook his head from side to side.

"What's he doing?" Genis asked, sounding confused. Sora made a low growling noise in his throat and shook his head, trying desperately to tell them that he was trapped inside himself. When they didn't understand, he made another noise that came out sounding rather lizard-like. An idea slowly forming in his mind as his tail flickered across his vision, he concentrated again and felt his body shifting. Leaving his mutant body behind he adopted one of a very small winged dragon. Once satisfied that this body was not horribly deformed, he made another shift into the body of a bird.

"Okay, we get that you can do animals, now how about you stop fooling around and go back to normal?" Sheena said in exasperation. Sora shook his head and reverted back to his mutant form. If he would have known that his mutant self was a shape shifter, he'd have taken advantage of it a long time ago...

"So he can't change back." Genis said. "Just great. What do we do now? We can't bring him to Meltokio like this!" Sora thought for a moment, trying to think of any creature whose DNA coursed through his body that wouldn't attract a lot of attention. When he finally reached a decision, he cringed inwardly at how clichéd it was, but he couldn't deny that it was the most logical decision. Sighing, he allowed his body to take on a canine form. He wouldn't lower himself to taking on the body of a dog, but in his mind, wolf was close enough that he could still pass and retain a portion of his dignity. Regarding what he could see of his own body, he allowed himself to be satisfied with his appearance and gave the rest of his group a look that clearly said,

"Laugh at me and I will bite you."

"Well…" Raine said, a slight smile on her lips. "I suppose that will have to do."

"Aww, Sora," Sheena said, coming over to him and patting his head. "You make such a cute puppy dog." Sora growled and with a snort of indignation, got to his feet and strode on ahead of everyone, tail held high despite the horrid embarrassment he was experiencing. His time in Tethe'alla was going to be hell and he knew it.

End Chapter XXIII

Plans


	25. Ch XXIV Ponderings

**Disclaimer**: Well... I'm sure you all hate me by this point since I've been updating so dreadfully slow and because of my general awfulness, but..here I am again, with a brand new chapter for you all *grin* But first, before I start, I just want to address something that has become a bit of an issue.

It seems as though a few readers, and some who apparently follow my art account on DeviantART as well, have a bit of a problem with the fact that Sora is a "mary sue". These people shall remain anonymous, but while I respect their opinion, I have this to say. _Twilight_'s Edward Cullen is a mary sue. Sora does not even begin to compare to Edward Cullen. Though I will admit that his score on the official Mary Sue fiction test was rather high. He isn't unbelievably perfect, he can't do everything and be overall amazing with only one flaw to his character like our favourite sparkly 107 year old virgin, but I will admit maybe I've made him just a bit too much the center of attention. However, just to clarify, there is a reason I spend a large amount of detail on him, and why most of the story revolves around him, even from the eyes of other characters. He is meant to be the main character. While I did begin the story from Kratos' perspective, Sora hadn't been introduced yet, and I wanted to sort of slowly shift focus over to him, once Kratos took off. That being said, I would also like to state that if you took the official Mary Sue test, using any one of the Tales of Symphonia characters, you would score rather high, which is bad. This applies particularily Lloyd or Kratos, they are two of the biggest mary sues out there. Unless you want to write a boring crap rag of a story, your characters are going to end up being mary sues. For those of you who don't know what a mary sue is just look it up because I don't really feel like explaining it here only to have people focus on that instead of the chapter. If anyone else has any "mary sue" issues either leave it in a review, or just keep it to yourself because I'm getting annoyed with the private messages about it. End rant here. Thanks.

In other news I'll likely be updating a lot quicker now that I've fallen out of my BLEACH phase and back into Tales of Symphonia, though I am still rather obsessed with BLEACH. Not to mention Pokemon games... Quilava ftw! *guilty smile*

But I'm sure you're all eager to start reading my awful writing, so let's get this story going, shall we?

I do not own Tales of Symphonia or any of its characters, settings or themes. They are property of Namco. I also do not own Midna, she belongs to Nintendo. I own any other characters. Thank ye.

_Chapter XXIV_

Ponderings

It didn't take long before Sora was tired of his new form. The others were blatantly ignoring his warning glare and bothered him about his "cute" new face at every opportunity, and no matter how menacingly he growled back, they only found it more amusing. The idea of morphing himself into something more intimidating crossed his mind, but that would only prevent them from entering Meltokio without attracting a lot of attention. Even Eccah was joining in on tormenting him, commenting on how scruffy his new fur looked and suggesting she take him to a groomer to be brushed. Only Lloyd and Colette refrained from annoying him, and though he knew it was not out of consideration for his feelings, he was grateful.

Still, he couldn't help but feel guilty that he couldn't help them. He hadn't forgotten Lloyd punching him in the face, but he knew he deserved it and he found his mind wandering back to his friend over and over, wishing desperately that he could do something..._anything_ to put a smile back on Lloyd's face. It bothered him to see the young swordsman so distressed when he was usually so happy. He cursed himself for having not been present when his father had revived Eccah from her catatonic state, but then again...it had hardly been his fault. Things had been rough for him back then as well but he quickly pushed the thoughts from his mind, deciding that dwelling on the unpleasant past was not going to help them save Colette.

If only there was a way for him to reach his father back in Sylvarant...not that he knew where his father was. Pondering this, his heart sank again as he thought back on the truth of his past and all of the lies he'd fed to his friends about it. Nearly everything he'd told them about himself and Eccah had been a lie, and, despite how little it had bothered him at the time, now he was overwhelmed by guilt for decieving them.

While it was true that he'd been born in Iselia as far as he knew, he had not lived in Luin at all, until after Eccah's failed World Regeneration journey, when they'd fled there and gone into hiding. Luin had not been attacked at random, before Lloyd found them at Kvar's ranch. It had been razed as punishment for hiding them, and Lukas and Orin had also been playing along with their story to protect their sister, when they claimed to have escaped before the attack. They had escaped unbeknownst to the group when Kvar's ranch had been raided.

He shook his head to clear it of the dark, self-loathing thoughts that had gathered there and pushed the memories of all of the lies away. He would tell them all the truth someday. Someday he would make things right, but that day was not today. There were more important things to worry about right now, and even if he had wanted to, there was no way of communicating with them in his current state. Unless of course he asked Midna to translate, but as everyone else seemed to have forgotten her existence in the shock of Kratos' betrayal and his mutation, he didn't exactly want to bring it up again. As if she had heard his thoughts, Midna's voice suddenly entered his mind.

_Thank you, Sora. And...I'm sorry for everything I've done to you. _He sighed and attempted a smile which did not work well with his wolfy face, judging by the slightly disturbed look that Genis was giving him.

_Ehh..shut up, you._ He replied, quickly returning his face to its irritated scowl.

As night fell on their first night in Tethe'alla, and they were beginning to set up camp for the night, Eccah once again found herself gazing in the direction of the sullen wolf-faced boy whom she'd spent the last five years traveling with. He was regarding their friends with the strongest expression of guilt on his face that she had ever seen, and after a few minutes he suddenly took off running, away from their campfire. She didn't try to stop him, knowing that he'd return, but it did bother her that no one else really seemed at all interested in where he was going. They had every right to be angry, to hate him even, yet the fact that she seemed to be the only one who cared for him bothered her. Maybe her opinion was biased, but...she found herself once again wishing that everyone, even Sora himself, could see the side of him that she did.

It was some time before he came back, and nearly everyone was asleep when he padded silently back to the fireside. Only Eccah, Lloyd and Colette were awake as he sat down just outside the circle of light created by the fire, and he avoided their eyes as he rested his nose on his paws. He felt better after his run with Midna, very much better, but the guilt still plagued the back of his mind as he watched his friends out of the corner of his eye. As usual, his gaze quickly traveled to Eccah. He knew that she was probably the only one who would forgive him, and had likely already done so, and despite how much he knew he didn't deserve it, he was extremely grateful. He studied her face and even after her eyes met his he didn't look away. He wished he could tell her without words how much that gaze meant to him, but even if he was able to speak, he wasn't sure he'd be able to word it at all anyway. She smiled a bit as she reached over to lay her hand on his head and he let out a contented sigh. As long as she still cared everything would be alright for him, he decided. As long as she forgave him he could survive.

End Chapter XXIV

Ponderings

A/N: Sorry for such a boring chapter, I just kind of wanted to get a feeling for the story again, not to mention to relay some of Sora's more sane feelings about the situation, and fill in a few loose ends I realised I'd left. More to come soon, I plan on doing a lot of writing this week at camp so this will likely be a mass update.. Expect to see some of the classic characters you all know and love quite soon, and just as a favour, if anyone is actually reading this...

Please, all reviews are greatly appreciated and I would honestly and truely love to hear what you think of my characters, Sora and Eccah in particular. I would rather not get any comments about how they are mary sues, as I've already made clear in my disclaimer but any other comments would be wondrous :)


	26. Ch XXV Jealousy

June 29, 2010

**Disclaimer**: Well I'm sure you all know who owns what by now but just for formality's sake, I don't own anything to do with Tales of Symhonia, it belongs to Namco, and Midna belongs to Nintendo. I have lost track of all the original characters at this point, but I own em all. Yes I do. So...just a little update. My ideas for this story have changed quite a bit from what they were when I started, and I'm quite confident that my writing style has improved so I've gone back and updated and tweaked several chapters, eliminating rambles and changing parts I didn't like. So this is just a bit of a reminder to go back and re-read all those chapters if you haven't already, because upcoming parts may not make as much sense if you don't. I haven't changed things so drastically that the entire story changes, but I've cleared a few things up and such so...yeah, you know what I'm getting at.

Also I just want to thank those of you who are actually following this actively and who are actually enjoying reading this, I know it's probably not some of my best work, and as much as I do like it my writing just seems...I dunno, sub-par to me but meh. Enough of that. On with the story! *is enjoying herself way too much*

_Chapter XXV_

Jealousy AKA Boring Filler Chapter

Several days passed in much the same way as the first, and everyone slowly got used to the strange new atmosphere of Tethe'alla. Sheena had explained that it was because the mana was thicker in the air here, and they were feeling its effects. Genis and Raine seemed to be thriving in this world already, their elvish heritage obviously making their bodies more sensitive to the mana. Genis' wounds were already healing at a remarkable rate and Sora's guilt was lessening with them.

It was strange, being back home, Sheena decided. She'd been in Sylvarant so long that she'd grown almost used to it, not that it was really such a bad thing. She'd been led to believe that the people of Sylvarant were barbarians, living in a stone-aged world, but the people she'd met there had been kinder and far more accepting than most people she'd ever met here...

The knowledge that she would soon have to leave them all behind weighed heavily on her heart but she kept her emotions carefully clear of her face, never once letting on that something was wrong. She talked and smiled with everyone as usual, as though nothing was bothering her and she was simply happy to be safe and back home. There were moments where she saw Eccah's shy eyes studying her from under golden hair, and those eyes said that they knew what she was hiding, but Sheena decided it must be her imagination. Sure, the girl had always been good at sensing what others were feeling, but she couldn't be _that_ good, right? Of course not.

She knew that she should probably tell them, give them a bit of forewarning, but what could she really say?

_"Hey sorry, but I was given orders to not come back unless I killed Colette and I failed horribly, so now I can't come with you." _ Yeah, _that_ would be just great. Smooth, Sheena. Real smooth. So, she kept her mouth shut, going over what she would tell them when the time came in her head over and over, but not ever really making any progress and as Meltokio loomed in the distance, growing ever closer, she was still as much at a loss for an explanation as she had been when they first started.

He had finally gone insane, he was sure of it. The voice in his head, telling him what to do was only proof of that fact. He only heard it clearly when his mind was groggy, just before sleep claimed him, but he could never really make sense of it. Something about protecting someone? It almost seemed like he'd been given these orders before, but...when was that again?

_You must protect them at all costs. Protect your friends, even from Heaven itself. You must not allow any harm to befall them. Do you understand?_

No, he didn't understand, really. He knew he wanted to protect his friends, but what the hell did the voice mean, "protect them from Heaven itself"? And why did the voice in his head sound like Kratos? It was all so confusing. He growled quietly at nothing in particular, rising from his comfortable position by the warm fire and beginning to pace along the borders of their camp. Tomorrow would be the day they reached Meltokio, Sheena had said. That was good, right? So why did he feel so nervous about it? He felt as though he were walking straight into a trap laid just for him, but how was that even possible? Who would even know him here? He'd hardly been in Tethe'alla for a week yet...

Paranoia. Another sign of insanity. This was all just too confusing.

_"Relax, Scruffy."_ Midna's voice rang in his mind. _"You're getting yourself all worked up over nothing. Down boy! Sleep!"_ Sora growled, shooting his shadow a dirty look.

_Quiet you._ he replied. _Stop treating me like a dog. And enough with the degrading nicknames, alright?_ He heard Midna sigh loudly, and her smoky form rose from his shadow.

_"Awww, what happened to you, Fido?" _ she said in her mocking, sing-song voice. _"You used to be so much fun. Now you're so...uptight and _**moody**_."_ Sora narrowed his eyes, lowering his ears slightly.

_Yeah, well...shit happens._ he snapped, looking away. _Shouldn't you be hiding? It's kind of hard to explain you at the moment, and Eccah doesn't really know the details so she wouldn't really be much help._

_"Oh, and of _course_ we wouldn't want to burden poor, sweet _**Eccah**._" _Midna said, her voice dripping with sarcasm. She rolled her eyes and pouted. _"Martel forbid you ever ask her to do anything that might be too _**hard**_."_ Sora turned to look at her, and incredulous expression on his face.

_What does that even mean? _he asked her, cocking his head. _What the hell is _**your **_problem?_ Midna avoided his gaze, crossing her arms and legs in the air.

_"You always treat her like such a fragile little princess." _she scoffed. _"What makes _**her**_ so special?"_ Sora stared at her in amazement for a moment, his mouth hanging open, then he began to laugh for the first time in what seemed like ages. It was a loud, barking laugh and he knew he was likely waking everyone up, but this new realisation amused him so much that he hardly cared. Midna glared at him indignantly, her little hands balled into fists.

_Midna!_ he said incredulously. _Are you _**jealous**_?_ Midna looked abashed, then quickly regained her composure and snapped her head away, looking offended.

_"Of course not! Why would I ever be jealous?"_ she scoffed. _What do I have to be jealous of, hm? I know you love her, it's so obvious! And it's not like _**I **_have feelings for you or anything..."_ Sora laughed again, but quickly stifled the sound when he saw that she was genuinely offended.

_I'm sorry, _ he said, still trying not to laugh. _It just seemed like you were actually jealous of her._ Midna sniffed, examining her fingers.

"_Well, if that's what you thought, you must be stupider than I originally figured."_ she said, once again in her mocking sing-song voice. Sora sighed, smiling inwardly.

_Women..._ he thought. _I swear, I'll never understand 'em._ With one final chuckle at Midna's expense, he lay back down beside the fire, resting his head on his paws. His mood significantly lightened from what it had been, he closed his eyes and with one last sigh drifted off into slumber.

Morning came quickly, and with it, the excitement of seeing Tethe'alla's capital city. From what Sheena had told them, the king of all Tethe'alla resided there, and to be in a city where royalty was present was not something any of the Sylvaranti had previously experienced.

"Tethe'alla's Chosen also lives there," Sheena had said. "But trust me when I say he is nothing like what you'd be expecting." When asked what she meant she merely stated that they should hope for the women's sake that they didn't run into him.

This piqued Eccah's curiousity. What could that possibly mean? Lloyd had some theories, but Raine deemed them inappropriate for the ears of ladies and children, so Genis, Sheena and Eccah never learned what they were, and Lloyd gained a lump on his head. They never had much time to wonder about it however, for soon the gates of Meltokio loomed before them.

"Well guys..." Sheena said quietly. "This is where I leave you." Eccah turned to her friend, surprise on her face.

"What do you mean?" she asked softly, brushing some of her hair from her eyes. As she did so she fleetingly wondered why she always let it fall in her face like that...

"I have to report back to my village," Sheena explained, looking away awkwardly. "You're forgetting, I had a mission...and I have to let them know I failed." There was a bit of an awkward silence, but Lloyd quickly broke it.

"Just come back, okay?" he said, giving her a reassuring smile. Eccah tried to hide her grin as a faint blush crept across Sheena's face, and the beginnings of a plan began to form in her head...

"Y-yeah, I'll try." Sheena stammered in response. After a few heartfelt goodbyes and a very tight hug from Eccah, Sheena set off in the opposite direction alone.

"Hm..." Eccah sighed. "I'm gonna miss her." Sora grunted in agreement, shaking out his fur. After a moment of watching their friend depart, the group turned and nervously passed through the gates of Tethe'alla's capital city.

End Chapter XXV

Jealousy AKA Bad Filler Chapter


	27. Ch XXVI A Second Betrayal

July 1, 2010

**Disclaimer**: It's me again! Happy 143rd Birthday Canada! *hugs Canada* Today I feel proud to be a Canadian and I'm not even entirely sure why, but who cares! Canada ftw! ANYWAY...

I am incredibly sorry for that horrible awful non-super-special-awesome last chapter but I needed some way to lead up to them getting to Meltokio I didn't really just want to make them POOF there magically cause that would just be stupid. And... I'm not nice enough to give the characters in my stories a "Quick-Jump" option hahah. *wink*

Anyway, sorry for not doing any fun disclaimers lately but in that field I've been feeling a bit uninspired and also I don't even know what's going on with half the people who usually help me or if anyone's even still reading this so yeah. Anyway I want to, again, thank everyone who actually reads my awful writing and anyone who is actually following my sad excuse for a story. XD Here's another chapter, and this one will actually have some action. I promise!

I do not own Tales of Symphonia or anything to do with it, all of that glory belongs to Namco. Midna in all her adorable, annoying, awesomeness belongs to Nintendo, and Link. Cause I totally ship LinkxMidna. They're just so damn cute together! (Moreso when she's not in her imp form of course) *Ahem* I appear to be rambling. So uh...let's continue with the story, shall we?

**Chapter XXVI**

_A Second Betrayal_

It was rather difficult to keep the amazement from their faces as the group of Sylvaranti travelers entered Meltokio. In all their lives, none of them had ever seen such a huge city-even their capital city Palmacosta didn't compare.

"Wow," Eccah breathed. "This place is four times the size of any city back home! It's kind of incredible!" The only one unaffected by the sheer size of Meltokio was Colette, who still stared straight ahead, her eyes unseeing and her face blank. As they watched, a stray dog wandered over to Colette and nudged her hand with its nose, its tail wagging happily behind it. Colette turned her blank eyes to the dog's, and with no hesitation, kicked the dog away. As the dog ran away yelping, Genis' face fell.

"Colette used to love dogs.." he said sadly, as if realising only now the true extent of his friend's change.

"She doesn't remember," Eccah said, going to Colette's side. "She doesn't remember anything about who she is, where she came from, or any of us. She likely won't even remember much about any of this...if we can save her.." She shook her head sadly, putting her hand on the Chosen's shoulder. "I didn't remember anything at all...when it was me."

"We'll get her back." Lloyd said firmly. "I know we will. Somewhere in there is the real Colette and I'm going to get her back no matter what."

"Lloyd..." Eccah began, but when he turned to look at her and she saw the fierce hope and determination in his eyes, she couldn't bring herself to finish the sentence. And...it unnerved her. She'd seen that look so many times before, but it was not his face on which she was accustomed to seeing it. "Nevermind." she said finally. "It's nothing."

_If it was possible to bring me back, then maybe...Colette can be saved too._

... ... ... ... ... ...

He was cursing the canine part of his mind more and more the farther they went into the city. While the human part was trying to pay attention to the task at hand and listening to the scattered conversation of his friends, the canine part was only interested in the sheer number of smells that were coming from the place. They were nearly overwhelming him and part of him wanted to follow each one to discover their source and to explore this new place he found himself in. Much to his dismay, he even found himself trotting along at an excited pace, his mouth open and tongue lolling out over his teeth. For the love of Martel, even his _tail_ was _wagging_.

_"Yep, you're right!"_ Midna teased in reply to his self-abusing thoughts. _"You _**are**_ a disgrace! Look at you! You could fit in perfectly with all the stray dogs around here!"_

_Shut up, I know that, _**shut up**_._ he grumbled, trying to shake the ridiculous actions his canine mind was telling his body to do. _C'mon, cut it out Sora! You're a human! Not a dog! So stop acting like one! Next thing you know they'll be strapping a collar around your neck and trying to walk you on a leash!_

Soon, keeping his canine side under control took enough of his concentration that he paid no attention to where he was until several shrill screams tore at his ears. Startled, he flattened his ears to his skull and his tail shot between his legs. He had wandered right into the center of a group of noblewomen, who were flocking around a scarlet haired young man in a pink vest and white trousers. The women were looking at him with a mixture of fear and disgust, and the young man merely look surprised.

"Oh, how _filthy_ the creature is! Surely a lowly stray!" one woman scoffed. "Shoo, filthy mutt! Shoo, go on! Get out of here!"

"Those eyes are terrifying!" another said shrilly. "_Surely_ it _must_ be vicious! Quick! Someone chase it away before it bites me!" The others began to spout much of the same nonsense, and despite his extreme desire to be away from their earsplitting voices, the number of scents coming from them all was driving him insane. He could smell each perfume, each soap, every fragrance they had likely applied to their skin as well as food they had recently eaten and even whether any of them owned pets! His body said "run" but his nose said "stay and smell". Instead he settled for backing away slightly but remaining close enough that he could still catch the scents.

"Now, now, ladies," the young man said in a rather charismatic voice that instantly brought the assumption of a ladies man to Sora's mind. "I'll handle this." Approaching Sora, he looked him straight in the eyes and said, "Beat it, dog. You're scaring my hunnies!" Sora stared at him incredulously, his mouth hanging open for a moment, then began to laugh his wheezy, barking laugh. One of the women shrieked, and swung her hangbag at him.

"Oh no!" she squealed. "That horrid monster is attacking Master Zelos!" Unable to stand it anymore, Sora bolted away, back to his friends and away from those horrid voices and their flying purses. The human side of him viewed it as ridiculous, but his canine side only knew fear. All dignity forsaken, he took refuge behind Eccah, ears flat to his skull and tail firmly tucked away between his legs. By this point the rest of the group had caught up with him anyway, and he could still see the noblewomen regarding him like the filthy monster they'd made him out to be.

"Sora!" Eccah exclaimed, laughing a little at his pathetic demeanour. "What did you do!" At that moment, the man with scarlet hair sauntered over and took Eccah's hand in a princely manner.

"Why hello there my petite beauty," he said smoothly. "Does this fine creature belong to you?" Eccah looked startled and tried to draw her hand away but the young man would have none of that.

"E-excuse me?" she stammered, backing away slightly.

"_Fine creature_? Weren't you just calling him a _mutt_ a second ago?" Genis said, shaking his head and raising one eyebrow. The man looked him up and down, and was apprently unimpressed.

"Not that I normally talk to _guys_," he said, his voice losing its velvety quality. "But that was before I realised he was the faithful pet of this very charming young princess here." He kissed Eccah's hand which was still in his grasp, then jumped back in alarm when Sora moved forward with an angry growl.

Positioning himself between Eccah and this annoying man, he kept his ears flat, but tail raised defiantly, and lifted his lips to show the man his sharp teeth. Eccah, whose hand had finally been released, moved back to the safety of Raine's side and stared at the man just as incredulously as Sora had done.

"Whoa, hey!" the man said, backing away. "Why don't you get that thing a muzzle or something! I almost got my arm bitten off!" As if to verify what the man had said, Sora let out another protective growl, then retreated away from the accusing glares of the smelly women. He stayed close to Eccah's side, his eyes never leaving the man's face.

"So much for not attracting attention," Raine said with a dark look at Sora, not bothering to hide her irritation. Sora gave her a look as if to say,

"Hey, you say that like it's _my_ fault! Blame that guy not me!" As soon as she spoke, the man was distracted and his face once again took on its confident, charismatic expression.

"Wellll, it seems that there is more than one beauty in this group!" he examined the rest of them for the first time and seemed delighted when his eyes fell on Colette. "Three of them! How lucky for you that I'm here then, ladies." He cast a disapproving eye over Lloyd and Genis. "You must have been _suffering_ with only these two _boys_." Lloyd and Genis made sounds of protest, likely to argue that they were _men_ not boys, but at that moment, the man had laid his hand on Colette's shoulder, and she had reacted by neatly lifting him off the ground and throwing him easily across the plaza as if he weighed nothing.

"Master Zelos!" the young women shrilled, chasing after him. The group stared after as he bid some hasty farewells and took his leave, still surrounded by the smelly noblewomen.

... ... ... ... ... ...

"What a _weirdo_!" Eccah said finally, once the initial shock had worn off. She brushed her hair from her eyes yet again, and for the first time since he'd ever met her, Lloyd saw her tuck some of it away behind her ear. "Just who _was_ that guy anyway?"

"Likely a young nobleman, with an ego too big for him." Raine said, as if she were uninterested. "But was the point of us coming here not to find the research laboratory?"

"Right." Lloyd agreed, walking over to where Sora and Eccah stood. He put a hand on his friend's furry head and said with a laugh, "Way to freak him out like that, Sora! You really put that guy in his place!"

Sora's reaction was not one Lloyd was expecting at all. As he placed his hand on Sora's head, the action was met by a loud snarl, and he narrowly avoided Sora's teeth as he pulled his hand hastily away.

"Hey!" he exclaimed. "What the hell are you doing?" Sora backed away, lips curled over his teeth and eyes burning violet once again. Eccah moved toward him slowly, hand extended.

"Sora, what's going on?" she asked him, sounding distraught. "What's wrong with you?" She too, had to pull her hand away as Sora's jaws snapped at her.

"Knock it off, Sora!" Lloyd hissed, taking a step forward. Sora's eyes darted over to Colette and before anyone could react, he leapt at her, teeth bared. Had Colette not been in her self-preservation mode, his attack could have proved fatal. However, she caught him by the throat mid-jump and threw him as easily as she had thrown the young nobleman. Sora, seeming unfazed by this, prepared for a second attack. Lloyd stood in front of Colette, his swords drawn.

"Sora stop it!" Eccah cried, grabbing ahold of his neck. A vicious growl ripped from his throat and he clamped his jaws down on her right arm. Crying out in pain, she flinched away and Sora's head snapped back to Colette and Lloyd.

"Eccah, are you alright?" Raine asked, hurrying to her side. Eccah didn't answer. She was holding her bloody arm and staring at Sora with a mixture of fear and sadness in her eyes.

"What the hell is wrong with you!" Lloyd yelled, still holding his swords at the ready. Sora's purple eyes gleamed, one eye slowly shifting to red, and he advanced toward them, his teeth still bared and body ready to spring.

He didn't think as he made his next move. It may have been anger, it may have been instinct. As Sora leapt forward, ready to strike again, Lloyd brought his blade slashing down through the air, his eyes shut tightly. He felt the blade connect and heard a loud yelp. Opening his eyes, he saw Sora backing away, shaking his head and rubbing at his face with his paws. Thick, red blood dripped down from his head and snout, staining his auburn fur and Lloyd saw a large slash right between his friend's eyes. He knew he'd done it but at the moment, he really didn't care.

"You're right, Sora." he said quietly. "I shouldn't have trusted you. Guess it wasn't worth it after all." Sora, now whimpering, looked up at the young swordsman, and the eyes that met his were now bright blue. As he spoke these words, Lloyd saw Sora's eyes widen, and he saw the look of hurt that appeared there. They stood staring at each other for a moment, but before he could even begin to calm down and think rationally, Sora suddenly took off in the direction they'd come, faster than Lloyd could ever hope to run, drops of blood spattering along the road as he went.

End Chapter XXVI

A Second Betrayal


	28. Ch XXVII Inner Turmoil

July 2, 2010

**Disclaimer**: Jeez, talk about spamming your inboxes...but there's not a whole lot else to do around here at the moment, and I wanna hurry up and move on with the story, so just bear with me *wink* Anyway, I really hope any of you who actively follow this story will leave me some reviews, because they really, really make me want to get a move on and update faster, and I _love_ hearing what you guys have to say about my work :) And, as I mentioned in an earlier chapter, I really want to hear what you guys think of my original characters, specifically Eccah and Sora.

I seriously need to be kicked into gear though with finishing this, I've been working on it for nearly two years now I think? Something like that. Anyway, I update in spurts, seeing as I tend to get distracted by other things but if you guys push me, I _will_ feel guilted into updating and that is good, hahah. Don't let me slack off just because I'm addicted to Pokemon games and do nothing but play them XD Actually the last few days it's been an old-ass Hamtaro game but I'll just let myself be ashamed of that on my own XD

I do not own Tales of Symphonia, or any of its characters, settings or themes, as all of that belongs to Namco. Midna is Nintendo's. I own (let's see if I can remember 'em all) Eccah, Sora, Koda, Tregan, Lukas, Orin, and numerous other OC's that will likely be making appearances, however briefly. Onward!

**Note** **This went long unfinished mostly because I couldn't figure out how to continue it so in the end I'm just going to start a new chapter. So enjoy :)

Chapter XXVII

_Inner Turmoil_

It was hard not to think as he ran. His mind was in a turmoil, Lloyd's words repeating over and over in his head, the memories of what he had done, and the confusion over just what had happened. He didn't remember. What had caused Lloyd to strike him, to speak such harsh words? His memory was filled with blank spots and it was not helping the feeling of panic welling up in his chest.

_"You were right, Sora. I shouldn't have trusted you. Guess it wasn't worth it after all."_

Barreling out of the city and back toward the mountain they'd crashed into days before, he let out a long, heartbroken howl. Screw dignity, what did it matter now? He'd lost his only friends...A man he'd thought had cared for him had turned his blade against him, and for what? He hadn't done anything...had he? No, he was fairly sure he hadn't.

Finally, after his legs could carry him no further and his body was heavy with fatigue, he let himself drop in a sandy field, at the foot of the mountain. He lay panting, legs folded awkwardly under him, and tried desperately to remember what had provoked Lloyd into attacking. All he could remember was a sharp stinging sensation in his neck, and then Lloyd cutting him.

The wound had long since stopped bleeding, but still throbbed and ached with each beat of his heart, as if his own body was intent on reminding him of its existence. He whimpered softly, closing his eyes, feeling more exhausted than he'd ever felt before.

_Midna..._he called out softly. Even his mind's voice was weak and tired. Midna's dark form slowly rose before him, and the eyes that met his were sad. She said nothing, only placed a small hand on the end of his nose. _How bad...is it..?_ She examined his wound, and sighed lightly. He knew that she would try to tell him it was "hardly noticable" or "not as bad as it feels" so that he would put it out of his mind, but he saw the truth in her eyes, and she knew it.

_"Well..."_ she admitted, her voice a bit shaky. _"It will probably leave a scar, but..."_ Sora grunted, closing his eyes again.

_Heh._ _Well, they say chicks dig battle wounds, right?_ he joked humorlessly. After a moment, he opened his eyes again.

_What did I do?_ he asked, a desperate undertone to his voice. Midna couldn't answer, merely looked at him sadly.

"You did nothing." a voice said suddenly. Jerking his head up, Sora looked around, ears trying to catch the source but to no avail. A low growl rose in his throat, but he was simply too exhausted to actually do anything, and it was likely whoever was speaking knew it as well. But what confused him was that the voice seemed to be-

"Answering your thoughts, yes."

... ... ... ... ... ...

He did not stop to question why the boy was running around in such a foolish body, or why he was alone. He saw the wound on his face and had heard enough to gather that he had been banished from his group of friends. Now the creature lay panting like a common dog in the dirt, hardly able to lift his head, and yet still he growled as if he believed he could defend himself if attacked.

_"Where are you?"_ the boy demanded, his eyes darting from shadow to shadow, as if hoping to spot the source of the anonymous voice. _"Show yourself, dammit!"_

He chuckled, and with a smirk, replied,

"So Lloyd has turned his blade against you. How sad. And he _promised_ that you were friends, didn't he?"

_"What are you doing?"_ came Midna's voice. _"Why are you here?"_ She spoke clearly, but he knew she was hiding her words from the boy.

"I feel no need to answer that, Midna." he said softly, taking a step forward. The boy looked at her.

_"What is he talking about?"_ he asked her. _"You know him?"_ Midna looked unsure.

_"I-I think so.."_ she replied. _"But it's hard to tell who-"_

"I'm sorry, but I really do not have time for this." he said, cutting her off. "As your plan failed, you know what must happen. You cannot protect him any longer." When his words registered, he saw the recognition on her face and she faced him, floating in front of the boy protectively, as if to defend him.

_"Midna?"_ the boy looked at her quizzically, but his eyelids were drooping, the last of his energy running out.

_"No!" _Midna cried out. _"I won't let you kill him!"_ He chuckled, and leapt down from his hiding place on an outcrop of mountain.

"Calm yourself, this is not the time to be acting so foolish." he said idly, sauntering over to the boy, who was now slowly drifting into slumber. He easily pushed Midna to the side and laid a hand on the boy's side, muttering a healing spell.

_"W-what are you doing?_" Midna demanded, peering over his shoulder. His mismatched eyes glinted as he smirked at her.

"Well," he said matter-of-factly. "We cannot just let him lay here like this, can we? If not taken care of, he could quickly die, you know."

_"I..."_

"He has been injured many times, and while the most notable have been tended to already," he continued. "Without proper treatment and rest they _will_ catch up with him and then he will be less than useless to us."

_"I thought you wanted him dead."_ He looked at her from the corner of his eye, still smirking. Absently brushing a lock of dark green hair from his face, he replied,

"Plans change, do they not? I have discovered another way for him to be useful. His banishment merely moves things along quicker than expected."

_"What do you mean?"_ Midna looked interested now. He chuckled.

"Patience, Midna. Patience." he said softly. "All in due time, my friend. First, we must find refuge so he can rest. Fetch my Rheaird, will you?"

End Chapter XXVII

Inner Turmoil


End file.
